Where Are They Now?
Jonathan Thiebaud has spent his career coaching, and now works as an athletic director and head football coach in Lockney, Texas. While the work requires long hours and emotional investment, Thiebaud wouldn’t change anything about his work.
“[I’m inspired by] the difference I can make in these kids’ lives,” he said. “In our society right now there are so many broken homes. If I can be a strong male figure for somebody, if I can make a difference in even one person’s life, I’ve done my calling.”
Thiebaud graduated from Dublin High School in 2001, and went to Tarleton State University. He entered as pre-med, but during a semester spent with the baseball team working as an athletic trainer, he changed his mind.
“The coach said to me, ‘I’m hearing you tell these guys things before I can tell them — you should go into coaching,’” Thiebaud said. “Since that day, it was like, that’s what I need to be doing.”
So Thiebaud switched his major to education, following in the footsteps of his mother, a teacher at DeLeon.
He completed his student teaching in Granbury, and after he graduated from Tarleton in 2005, Thiebaud found his first job as a football defensive line coach and girls basketball and softball coach at San Saba.
“I had a blast coaching the girls,” Thiebaud said. “And my second year at San Saba, the head softball coach stepped away so I became head coach.”
The program was fairly new, and constantly improving. His first year as head coach, Thiebaud’s softball team won seven games. The next year, they won 19, earning a spot in the playoffs.
After seven years in San Saba, Thiebaud found himself wanting to coach baseball, a sport he himself had been passionate about in high school. “They offered me a baseball job in San Saba, but I couldn’t take the baseball job there because my softball girls would think I was abandoning them,” he said. “A bunch of people agreed with me on that, so I looked for another job and found one in Stanton. I actually started the baseball program there.”
Starting a program was no easy feat. “We had to get a field first,” he said. “My first year I was the track coach until we got the baseball field done, and then it was a matter of getting all the right equipment, and there is never enough money.”
The early days of the program had their ups and downs. “We did make the playoffs one time while I was there,” Thiebaud said.
He stayed at Stanton for seven years, until one day he received a phone call from an old colleague who worked in Lockney. “He said, ‘Hey, come be my defense coordinator,’ and I thought I’d check it out,” Thiebaud said. “I brought my son, who was about to be a freshman. We were in the town for about ten minutes before he said, ‘Dad, we have got to move here.’” Thiebaud wanted his son to have a say in where he spent his high school career, and the whole family felt welcomed by the Lockney community. “In all honesty, everybody is super nice,” Thiebaud said. “Everywhere we went, it was a great experience and we just really liked the community.”
Thiebaud and his family moved out to Lockney, and have been there since 2020. He has since moved up to the position of athletic director and head football coach. “I’m mostly managing people, which is an interesting deal,” he said. “[When] I’m not coaching, I’m just the kids’ biggest fan.”
His workload depends on the season. “It’s never the same,” he said. “During football season it’s crazy. It’s 80-100 hour work weeks.”
When Thiebaud has free time, he enjoys reading novels and magazines, watching sports, and spending time with his family. He and his wife Kaycee have been married for nearly 16 years, and they have two children, Dyllan, 15, and Anna, 10. The family attends Lockney Methodist Church.
Thiebaud’s parents, Monte and Roxanna Thiebaud, still live in the Dublin area. His family, especially his father and grandfather, are Thiebaud’s greatest role models. “I watched my granddad working on the farm, and [admired] how Godly of a man he was and how hard he worked,” Thiebaud said. “I saw the same thing in my father, and I’ve modeled myself after these two guys. I don’t know if I could ever live up to them, but I’m trying my best.”
To Dublin students, Thiebaud offers the following advice: “No matter what anybody says about you or thinks about you, always love big. You may get burned, but I’m telling you: if you love big, great things are gonna happen in your life.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@ dublincitizen. com.