Lee coach Mike Owens talks to his players at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 8, 2005. Lee played Cincinnati Colerain at Crew Stadium on Sept. 9, 2005. (David Branch/Tyler Morning Telegraph File Photo)

Four years was a long enough retirement for Mike Owens.

Reported first on twitter by the Palestine Herald-Press, the winningest football coach in Robert E. Lee history will officially be named new athletic director/head football coach at Class 3A Frankston on Wednesday.

Owens was head coach at Lee for 15 years before retiring in 2011. In that time, the Red Raiders posted at least nine wins in seven seasons, were district champions five times and reached the playoffs 13 of those 15 years. He posted a 111-69 record and enjoys the best winning percentage (.616) in school history.

His greatest achievement occurred in 2004 when he led Lee to the school’s first state football championship by defeating Spring Westfield 28-21 in the Class 5A Division I championship at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Owens, 63, now takes over a Frankston football program which went 4-6 last season and has one playoff victory (2010) in over a decade. The furthest Frankston has ventured into the playoffs was the regional round in 2002.

The legendary coach said the opportunity came out of nowhere.

“I was sitting in the doctor’s office just waiting for my appointment and thinking to myself this is the most exciting thing I have done in the four years and this is just boring,” Owens continued. “I hadn’t even completed that thought in my head when the phone rang and the superintendent from Frankston was on the other end asking me if I would be interested in looking at their (head coaching/AD) job.”

According to the Herald-Press, Frankston’s former head coach/AD Matt Nally left last week to be the offensive coordinator at Melissa to be closer to his family.

Owens agreed to come up and see the campus and said he was quickly won over by what Frankston had to offer.

“I went up there and they had great facilities for a 3A, had good-looking kids and some of the players were really big,” Owens continued. “I met some other coaches and a few of the board members and just decided, ‘I think I need to do this.’ I am big-time impressed with that place.

“I’ve driven through Frankston, but never (really thought) about the school, but I am really impressed. Surprised and impressed by their whole school and operation.”

Under Owens, REL became a power-running, multi-faceted offensive team with a hard-nosed physical way of play on both sides of the ball.

Many of the members of his coaching staff at Lee have left the school and/or begun new business or other opportunities. Names like: offensive line coach Gary Fleet, defensive coordinator Jay Law and offensive coordinator Dow Wynn, among others.

“I’ve talked to some of them, but I think they’ve all moved on,” Owens said. “Jay is a lot older than I am and he lives up in Arkansas and is playing golf every day. Dow is used to being retired and he’s a big fisherman. They all want to, but being willing to do it is a different animal. And I’ve also met a bunch of the coaches over there and they seem like good guys and I am not looking to run off anybody.”