Former North Forney head baseball coach Carey Willingham was hired to the same position at Plano East on June 17. Submitted photo
By David Wolman
Carey Willingham always envisioned himself coaching baseball at Plano East.
With one of the highest enrollments of any high school in the state — 5,346 students, according to the reclassification and realignment numbers released by the University Interscholastic League for the 2024-26 school years — Willingham said that it would be exciting to tap into that large of a talent pool.
Now the program is all his.
Willingham was hired as the next head coach of the Panthers’ baseball team on June 17.
“I’m beyond excited,” he said. “It was really tough to leave North Forney. I had such great relationships with everyone that was there. Coach (Neal) Weaver, who is their AD, is a great guy. They had great leadership programs there. Every senior in the district is presented with an opportunity to do, for one day, present their leadership ideas. When I decided to leave, it was only because I felt that I needed a change.”
Willingham takes over for Tommy Sparks, who coached the Panthers from 2023 to 2025.
Coincidentally, Willingham took over for Sparks at North Forney in 2023 after Sparks made the decision to leave for Plano East.
North Forney missed the playoffs both years under Willingham’s watch.
In his second and final season with the Falcons, North Forney missed qualifying for the postseason by one game, and their playoff fate came down to the final day of the regular season. North Forney and Tyler Legacy were tied for fourth place in District 10-6A. However, the Falcons were eliminated from postseason contention following a 17-0 loss against Rockwall.
Willingham has 186 career coaching wins, with a majority of those victories coming at Naaman Forest. He coached at Naaman Forest from 2016 to 2023. The Rangers made the playoffs every year under Willingham, with the exception of the 2020 season, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He guided Naaman Forest to two district championships, an appearance in the fourth round of the playoffs in 2016 and the third round in 2022.
He hopes to bring that same level of success to a Plano East program that is on the rise. The Panthers made big strides in Sparks’ last year at the helm. Plano East went 7-9 in District 6-6A play after winning just two district games during the 2024 season, coming up two wins short of making the playoffs.
Willingham is excited to coach in a district alongside historically-successful programs such as Allen, McKinney Boyd, Plano, Plano West and Prosper.
“Very difficult,” he said. “It’s a gauntlet. There are no rest games. There are no games where you can take it easy and relax because every district game is going to be highly competitive. And Region I is the toughest region. You have teams like Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus, Hebron and Southlake. It’s tough, but as a coach, you want to compete against the best. That’s one of the reasons why I came to Plano East.”
Willingham said that he met with a few players from Plano East when he was introduced last week and he has since called every player. He told them how excited he was to work with them and what is expected of them, including hard work and good character.
“For me, it’s too early to say what style of ball that I want for us to play,” he said. “I am going to build it around the skill set of the team.”
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