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Bartlesville High made it official on Monday morning. After 357 days on the job, Lee Blankenship has left the Bruin football program to become the head football coach at Mustang High School.

BHS is now searching for its fourth coach in the last three years.

Despite the early departure, Bartlesville Athletic Director Spence Rigdon says he and the school are appreciative of Blankenship’s time in Bartlesville.

Mustang competes in 6A-I and is the fourth largest district in the state. Mustang is the largest school in the Oklahoma City area. The Broncos went 4-6 last season and have missed out on the playoffs in two consecutive years.  Blankenship replaces Jeremy Dombeck, who resigned after this past season.

The departure of Blankenship comes before he had been on the job a year at BHS. His hiring was announced on Dec. 18, 2017.

Open Letter from Blankenship to Bartlesville

Blankenship will be the shortest tenured head coach in Bartlesville football history. Aside from interim head coaches – no Bartlesville head football coach – at BHS, College or Sooner High - has been on the job for less than two seasons.

Program stabilization and continuity will be a key with the next hire. Rigdon says it is always the goal to hire a long-tenured coach.

The release reads as follows:

Bartlesville, OK. December 10, 2018 – Bartlesville Bruins head varsity football coach Lee Blankenship met with the team on the morning of Monday, December 10 to inform them of his decision to pursue leading the football program at Mustang, which now has the fourth largest high school in Oklahoma. The district appreciates his leadership of its program during the 2018 season and has started the process to identify a replacement.