North Creek High School should have a football coach by the end of January — at least that’s the idea, but finding a coach to build the Jaguars from the ground up isn’t an easy task.

North Creek posted the job in early December, and expects to conduct interviews in the second week of the new year. The Jaguars have a handful of interested candidates, and assistant principal and acting athletics director Joseph Robertson said he plans to have a full day of interviews — six, maybe eight qualified candidates.

Football is the first of 22 head coaching positions to fill for North Creek, which will open next fall. The Jaguars will have freshmen, sophomores and juniors for the first year with a new class rotating in for the 2017-18 school year, but the department plans to field all varsity teams at the KingCo 4A level.

Like the other Northshore School District programs, North Creek has a practice field on campus but will play varsity football games at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell.

Robertson said the school will look to hire coaches for fall sports — football, volleyball, girls’ soccer, cross country, girls swimming, boys golf, boys tennis, etc. — and will post winter sports positions after the winter season is finished. Spring sports positions will be posted in June.

Three parents or North Creek community members and two future North Creek students will be on the interview committee, and North Creek High is taking applications from interested community members.

North Creek High will hire a full-time athletic director for the summer quarter.