MARIETTA - The Marietta City School Board is likely to name Scott Burton, a former assistant at the University of Richmond (Virginia), as Marietta High's new head football coach in a special called meeting at 6:30 tonight, a source close to the negotiations said Monday.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the record. Marietta High School Principal Leigh Colburn would only confirm that Burton is among the top finalists for the job.

"I am extremely pleased to have four candidates of such high-caliber interested in this job," Colburn said. "The Marietta community is in an enviable position."

Burton was in town last week and on Monday, the Journal has learned. But one possible hitch could be if Burton decides to stay in Virginia, where speculation has it that a prime high-school job may come open soon.

With Burton on its staff, Richmond saw its first and only national championship in 2008. Burton, 37, previously coached Highland Springs High School in Richmond to a 72-26 record.

On Jan. 22, James "Friday" Richards announced he was retiring after 15 years as Marietta's head football coach. Athletic Director Paul Hall and Colburn quickly began a statewide search, contacting high-profile coaches.

One premier coach who led a south Georgia program to a state championship was reportedly the leading candidate for the Marietta job until Burton showed up on the radar. Three other local head coaches rounded out the final five.

Burton became available earlier this year when Richmond's head coach, Mike London, was named the new head coach at the University of Virginia. London took a few of his long-time assistants with him, and the younger staffers were left searching for their next college job.

But Burton and his wife, Meg, reportedly decided to return to high school coaching so he would not miss watching his three sons, ages 10, 8 and 6, grow up.

Like many college coaches, Burton is a well-known speaker at high school clinics - where he teaches the intricacies of the spread offenses with topics like how to use an audible system, and how to run a no-huddle offense - and as such has ties to coaches all over the Southeast. In recent weeks, he has been mentioned as the leading candidate for head coaching jobs at three high schools in Virginia.

However, the source said Burton recognized that the states with the best athletes are generally thought to be California, Florida, Ohio, Texas and Georgia, with the latter two believed to be the best two states in which to coach high-school football. Burton also wants a job where there was only one high school in town.

Burton reportedly began calling all of his high-school coach contacts in Georgia and learned of the opening at Marietta, one of the state's top jobs.

As a player, Burton was a standout defensive back at Richmond from 1991-94, intercepting 16 passes. He also earned a degree in sociology/criminal justice there. He married his college sweetheart, and focused on becoming a high school football coach. That led him to pursue a master's degree in education at the University of Georgia.

Burton was in Athens during Coach Ray Goff's last year, in 1995, and Coach Jim Donnan's first year, in 1996, and both coaches gave Burton an open pass to attend the Bulldogs' practices. Over those two years, Burton developed an intricate notebook for a regimented practice schedule, with details down to the minute with no wasted time and no players left standing around.

With his master's degree in hand, Burton got to pick between two assistant-coaching jobs back in Virginia, one at an inner-city high school and the other at a wealthier school. He chose Douglass Freeman High School out of a desire to work with students with difficult home lives.

Two years later, Burton was only 25 when he was named head football coach at Highland Springs High School, where the student body is 88 percent minority and where 74 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The school has no booster club.

It took two years for Burton to change the attitude at Highland Springs, and his first two teams went 5-5. But then the school took off, and Burton went 62-16, including an undefeated season in his last year there, 2007. He led the Springers to seven consecutive postseason appearances and to the Capital District Championships in 2005 and 2007, according to his biography at www.richmondspiders.com. Burton was a four-time district coach of the year.

He sent almost 30 players to Division I universities. In each of his last seven seasons at Highland Springs, Burton saw at least one of his players selected as All State. Two of his players were names Parade All Americans, and Burton was named as the defensive coordinator for the East team in the 2007 Army high school All-American Bowl.

Highland Springs became known as a pipeline to Virginia Tech, one of the top football programs in the nation, but also sent players to other highly-rated programs, many of them in the ACC. One of those players, cornerback C.J. Fleming, chose Tennessee over Georgia in 2007, and on signing day the Volunteers noted that Burton's school was a "virtual defensive back factory that had placed five defensive backs at Division I or 1AA schools over the previous two years."

Burton teaches world history and also coaches track, like Coach Richards. And he apparently hopes to entice some of his former Highland Springs coaches - who include two science teachers - to move to Marietta.

The Marietta board of education meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at 250 Howard Street. According to a notice of the meeting sent to the Journal around 6:10 p.m. Monday, the special called meeting will be held for "executive session and personnel action."