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After one year as the head football coach at Bowie High School, Pete Barham was forced to relinquish the job because he no longer has tenure with the Prince George's County Schools. Longtime Bowie assistant Lionel Macklin will be the Bulldogs' head coach on an interim basis for the 2009 season.

Barham, who taught in the county for 16 years, took four years off to run his own carpentry business and returned to teaching last year. Teachers receive tenure after two years, but Barham's count started over when he returned, said Bowie High Athletic Director Bob Estes, adding that non-tenured teachers were let go as the school system tries to balance its budget.

Macklin taught for five years at Tall Oaks Vocational High School in Bowie before moving to Bowie High in 1999. Although he is a teacher, Macklin is considered an emergency coach for this fall, since the school hired him without an interview process. The position will be reopened at the end of the 2009 season. Typically, coaching positions held by teachers are not opened to applicants unless the coach steps down or the school decides to make a change. Emergency coaches, who usually are not teachers, must reapply for their positions each year.

Barham returned to teaching last fall, taking a position as a technology instructor at Bowie High, and said he planned to spend the next 10 to 15 years teaching at Bowie before retiring.

"It broke my heart," said Barham, whose mother Sue Barham taught in the county for 30 years and whose brother, John Barham, taught for 20. "This really was my dream job. I'm going to miss the kids. They worked hard and I know they'll keep working hard and I wish coach Macklin and his staff the best in the fall."

Barham, who has a son and a daughter in elementary school, said he has applied for teaching positions in Howard, Montgomery and Baltimore counties.

Macklin was a wide receiver at South Dakota State University and spent a year in camp with the Seattle Seahawks. He has been with the Bowie High football program for 10 years as an assistant to previous head coaches Scott Chadwick, Ray Hicks, Jae Jackson and Barham. Macklin was the wide receivers coach when the Bulldogs defeated Eleanor Roosevelt to capture the Class 4A state title in 2001 under Chadwick.

"I guess it's finally my time," said Macklin said. "I had applied on two other occasions and stayed on as an assistant. The kids have really been dedicated. Our returners have been in the weight room almost every day since the season ended."

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.