BENTONVILLE — Barry Lunney announced his retirement as Bentonville's head football coach and assistant athletic director Monday.
The announcement came less than two months after the Tigers won their second consecutive Class 7A state championship at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
He made the announcement — first to his coaching staff, then to his players — Monday afternoon at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
Bentonville’s 24-21 state championship victory over Fayetteville in December capped a 10-year tenure at the school for Lunney, whose teams compiled a 97-25 overall record and a 59-11 mark in 7A-West Conference play during that time. Under his guidance, the Tigers won four state championships and won or shared eight consecutive 7A-West titles, and they had built a 33-game conference win streak from 2009-13.
Lunney, who had previous head coaching stints at Beebe (two years) and Fort Smith Southside (16 years) before he took over at Bentonville in 2005, closes out his career with a 248-89-1 record. He currently ranks ninth all-time among Arkansas’ high school football coaches in career victories, and his .733 career winning percentage is the second-best among the state’s 13 winningest coaches.
His combined eight state championships at Bentonville and Southside tied him with former Barton coach Frank McClellan for the second-most in state history behind Wilson Matthews, who won 10 at Little Rock Central. He has a 46-13 career playoff record, including a 17-5 mark at Bentonville.
He will carry out the remainder of his contract at Bentonville, which expires June 30.