Mike Loyd expected to be named Joplin High School football coach tonight

(UPDATE- Just before tonight's board meeting, Mike Loyd turned down the offer.)

Grove High School Football Coach Mike Loyd is expected to leave after one year at that position to take the head coaching job at Joplin High School.

The official hiring is scheduled to be announced tonight at the Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting.

If the announcement goes as scheduled, this won't be the first go-round as JHS Coach for Loyd, a 1974 graduate of Memorial High School, who played quarterback in the NFL for six years, including a stint with the old St. Louis Cardinals.

Loyd coached at Joplin High School in the 1990s, then went on to a five-year run at Northeastern Oklahoma (NEO) where he compiled a 44-7 record, including a national championship in 1991.