On Monday, the Kannapolis City Board of Education approved hiring Ron Massey as the Wonders’ new football head coach and athletics director. Massey joins the Wonders from King’s Mountain High School in Cleveland County, where he also served as football head coach and athletics director.

Massey, 42, replaces Bruce Hardin, who resigned in February to become offensive coordinator at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. With a record of 121-24 and two state 3A championships in 11 years at Kannapolis, Hardin’s act will be hard to follow.

But officials say they’re confident Massey is up to the challenge.

“When you ask people who know who are the top head football coaches in our state, his name’s usually in that list,” said Dr. Annie Laura Pickett, Kannapolis’ director of personnel and administrative services.

Massey compiled a record of 47-15-2 as a head coach at King’s Mountain since 1995, including two epic clashes against Hardin’s Wonders in Memorial Stadium.

The Mountaineers ended Nick Maddox’s career in the state quarterfinals in 1998 with a 26-21 win. The two teams also met the year before in the semifinals, a 40-27 Wonder victory en route to the state title.

Massey’s Mountaineers won Southwestern Conference championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and made the state playoffs every year from 1995 to 1998.

He also had head coaching stints at Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville, where his record was 21-13, and W.G. Enloe High School in Raleigh, where he went 17-23-1. He was named Wake County Football Coach of the Year in 1988.

Other jobs include assistant coaching positions in Washington, Lumberton and Burlington and a year in sales and marketing for U.N.X Chemicals of Cary.

The school system received nationwide interest in the A.L. Brown head coaching job, Pickett said. Kannapolis Superintendent Dr. Ed Tyson said a search committee chose Massey from more than 25 applicants.

“We got some really good candidates,” Tyson said. “We feel really fortunate. Mr. Massey’s going to do a fine job.”