San Marcos High School’s football team will be led by a veteran coach from a Texas powerhouse program.

John Walsh will join the Rattlers program after 14 years at Denton Guyer, where he took his teams to four state champions games. The SMCISD Board of Trustees hired Walsh at its May 18 meeting. Walsh will also serve as the school’s athletic director.

According to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Walsh was 131-56 as a coach, finishing the 2019 year 14-2 and a loss to Austin Westlake in the Class 6A Division II title game. He resigned March 16, according to the Record-Chronicle, after leading Denton Guyer to state title games in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2019. His teams won championships in 2012 and 2013.

San Marcos CISD, in the online announcement of the hiring, said Walsh has a “proven background in developing student-athletes...Hundreds of players under Coach Walsh have continued their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level—80 of which have received Division I scholarships.”

Walsh has 27 years of total coaching experience, starting at Merkel ISD in 1993 and then nine years at Brownswood ISD before developing the Denton Guyer program.


“My family and I are extremely excited about our new chapter in the city of San Marcos,” Walsh said through San Marcos CISD. “I am personally honored to be selected as the new athletic director and head football coach at San Marcos CISD. I am eager to put in place a formula that has proven to build a winning culture, and get this city crazed about Rattler athletics.”

Walsh and his wife, Amber, have three children, including a son on the football staff of the University of Texas at Austin, a daughter at the University of Arkansas and a daughter who will be a junior at San Marcos High School.

“San Marcos CISD is excited to welcome Coach Walsh and his family to San Marcos,” Superintendent Michael Cardona said in the release. “Coach Walsh joins Rattler Nation with a wealth of knowledge which has led to a proven record of success. His roadmap for creating a winning culture will ensure our students are successful in all they do.”

Walsh joins San Marcos CISD on May 19.