It didn’t take very long to find a successor for Michael Worley, the former head football coach at Rio Rancho High School.

Nor did the district have very far to look. The position, available when Worley announced he was resigning his position, following his arrest for aggravated DWI in Rio Rancho on April 9.

Rio Rancho Public Schools athletic director Bruce Carver decided to keep his search for Worley’s successor in house, where there were three candidates: David Howes, Gino Satriana and Carl Bruere, all on Worley’s staff last season.

Dave Howes is looking forward to Rams' opener, on Aug. 28 in Hobbs.

On Wednesday, Carver announced Howes, who played his high school football “down the hill” at Cibola, was his choice.

Howes has been a West Side guy his whole life.

Graduating Cibola High in 1991, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of New Mexico, where he later obtained his master’s in special education.

Howes began his coaching career at West Mesa High School in 1993, where he was a varsity assistant in football and the head track and field coach from 1996-99.

He was the Mustangs’ defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at WMHS in 1999, then went to his alma mater, where he was as assistant football coach to former head coach Ben Schulz.

From 2003-06, Howes was an assistant football coach at Rio Rancho for head coach Phil Lopez.

After Lopez left in 2006, Howes was a finalist for the head coaching position, which ultimately went to Worley. Howes headed back to West Mesa, where he was the Mustangs’ defensive coordinator.

Howes, loved by his players everywhere he goes, returned to RRHS last fall and was a defensive co-coordinator with Satriana, who’d been his position coach at Cibola.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for David and I think he’s a got a lot of investment with these kids. He’s helped develop a lot of our players – a lot of our staff has,” Carver said. “This is his second time applying for the job and he has lent ownership to the program.

“He’s a defensive guy but he knows the other side of the ball, too,” he said. “There’s something to be said for his background. He has been a head coach, in track, and he has managed a lot of kids and managed programs and he’s been a cord – and that’s a huge responsibility.

“You combine (all that), and I feel like David’s ready. I think it’ll be a fairly smooth transition.”

Howes agrees.

“I’m real excited,” he said Wednesday morning. “Right now (the program) is focused on hiring an offensive coordinator and offensive line coach that’ll replace (former assistant) Barry Chambers.”

Chambers, formerly the head coach at Roswell before joining Worley’s staff last fall, has taken a coaching position in Brownsville, Texas.

“That’ll be a tough deal,” Howes said. “We have 13 positions filled and 14 to fill. We need to bring one in. I’ll meet met with the current staff, see who’s willing to do what.

Howes said Bruere, who played football at Wyoming and had a tryout with the Arizona Cardinals, could get the O.C. nod.

“We have experience coming back with Carl Bruere,” Howes said. “My desire isn’t to change the offense, but evolve it, make it more efficient. … As far as the defense, I implemented it three years ago so, yeah, I will continue to oversee the defense and it’s improvement.”

Howes said he wants the offense to be up-tempo and run plays out of multiple formations, with a non-huddle type of scheme.

“We want to cater to the athletes in this area with a tempo that will cerate problems for our opponents,” he said. “Ultimately, the buck will stop with me.”

Although the Rams will lose their talented trio of linebackers to graduation, along with running back Troy Harris, the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state, Howes won’t need to audition for quarterbacks.

Seniors-to-be Tyler Baker and Cohen Mangin return, and fans shouldn’t be surprised to see the QB not under center to be in the formation as a receiver.

“We’re going to let kids fight for jobs,” Howes said of the battle for starting spots. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

The Dave Howes Era begins Aug. 28 in Hobbs, a team the Rams beat twice under Worley – once in the 2007 state quarterfinals and again in the 2008 regular season.

“I would rather be nowhere else,” Howes said. “This is the biggest blessing you can possibly imagine, to stay at home and coach the kids you’ve been coaching for six years.”