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West Limestone will have a new head football coach this fall after David Arnsparger announced he would step down after leading the program for seven years.

Arnsparger informed The News Courier Thursday night he resigned as head football coach. His resignation will be considered at the Limestone school board meeting on April 8.

“I think coach Arnsparger has done an outstanding job,” said West Limestone Principal Charlotte Craig. “He has built up the program and has been excellent to work with. And three of the last four years we have gone to the playoffs.”

Arnsparger told The News Courier he did not have enough time to devote to the program right now. Craig confirmed Arnsparger stepped down to be with his ailing father.

David is the son of legendary coach Bill Arnsparger, who is best known as the defensive coordinator for the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins.

The West Limestone program enjoyed some of its best offensive seasons in school history under Arnsparger, who took over for Jeff Prince in 2007.

Arnsparger inherited a program that had a combined six wins in the previous four seasons. In his first season, the Wildcats went 5-5 and just missed the playoffs.

In 2010, competing in Class 4A for the first time in school history, West Limestone won eight games, scored the second most points (417) in school history and made the playoffs for the first time since 1998.

Arnsparger’s teams made the playoffs three out of the last four seasons. He is the first coach to leave West Limestone with a winning record since Michael Nave, who coached from 1976-80 and from 1985-95.

West Limestone was 7-4 this season with a first-round loss to eventual 4A state champion Oneonta. West Limestone was 38-36 in seven seasons under Arnsparger.

It is unclear at this time when West Limestone will name a new head football coach. Per state law, school positions much be advertised for two weeks. Craig said if the school board accepts Arnsparger’s resignation, the job could be advertised as soon as April 9.

“We’ll have a (search) committee and invite some people to be on that, but we have not formed the committee yet because (his resignation) came about this week,” Craig said.

—Reporter Kim West contributed to this report.