Former Bainbridge High School Bearcats offensive line coach Steve Bench is expected to accepted a position on the staff of Cairo High School head football coach Tom Fallaw. Bench said Fallaw has offered a position to Bench, but the Grady County Board of Education hasn’t acted on the position yet.

Bench’s son Steven, the Bearcats’ starting quarterback last season, will transfer to Cairo to play his senior football season there.

That was confirmed Wednesday by Coach Bench, who termed the decision an extremely difficult one.

“I will be coaching the offensive line and tight ends in Cairo,” Coach Bench said. “I appreciate the opportunity I was given to get back on the field and coach here.”

Bearcats head football coach Ed Pilcher said he had no comment on the Bench decision. Both Benches took part in BHS’ spring practices earlier this month.

The elder Bench was the BHS head football coach for the 1995 and 1996 seasons, in which the Bearcats went 6-4 and 1-9, respectively. He was an assistant coach on Ralph Jones’ state champion football teams with Bainbridge in 1982 and with Cairo in 1990.

Bench was also a part-time energy use consultant with the Decatur County Board of Education. He also served as the president of the Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame’s board of directors, which inaugurated the hall’s first class in February.