Durant High head softball coach Matt Carter has retired from coaching, according to the school.
Carter leaves with a 165-83 overall record since 2006. Under his watch, the team won the FHSAA Class 8A state championship in 2012, and won district titles in 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He also guided the team to the state Final Four in 2008.
This season, the team finished with an 11-15 record and nearly topped district runner-up Riverview in the 8A-6 playoffs.
The school confirmed that assistant coach Jessica Howton has been promoted and will be the team's new head coach.
"It's going to be nice to have a team I can mold myself," Howton says. "I really want to start molding the program the way I want it to be. Coach Carter did a great job. He's an amazing coach and an amazing person."
Howton, who will be entering her fifth season with the team, has been a swimming head coach and P.E. instructor in her five years at Durant. She ran both the boys and girls swimming teams in the 2015-16 school year, and has confirmed that the school has hired a new girls coach and is looking for a new boys coach.