Why I Coach: Every Road Led Back to the Sideline
There was a stretch of my life when I sold Harley-Davidsons in Concord, North Carolina. Less than a year in, I knew it was not for me. That was the second time I had stepped away from football, and the second time I found out I could not stay away.
I did not plan on any of this
I played high school football at Richlands for a program that won a lot of games. When it was over, I was done. I had no interest in teaching, no interest in coaching, and honestly not much interest in the sport at all.
In college I got hooked on lifting. I earned my personal training license, thinking that might be my path. It was not. I figured that out pretty fast.
The weight room pulled me back
What got me back was going home. I started volunteering with the workouts at my old high school, and I loved it. The kids, the coaches, the whole community around the program.
It was not one kid or one big moment. It was watching a group of guys work that hard for something that meant that much to them. I had been in their shoes just a couple of years before. I knew exactly what they were working for.
I know what it is like to be a kid working his tail off to win a football game. That is still why I coach.
Before long I wanted to give more than a spot on the bench press. I started coaching a position, then some JV, then some offensive coordinator work. I was all in.
Then life happened
Coaching does not pay much when you are starting out, and getting hired into a school system is its own long road. I was tired of being broke and tired of working all the time. So I left and went to sell motorcycles.
It was the wrong life for me. The way we went about selling bikes just did not sit right with me, and I was not cut out for it.
A picture of palm trees
Thad Wells and I played together at Richlands and had coached together there too. One day he posted a picture from where he was coaching, Colleton Prep Academy in Walterboro, South Carolina. Palm trees and sand. I had always wanted to live near the beach. I wanted back into coaching. I had no reason not to go.
So I went, and we hit it off as a staff. When Thad took the head job at Blacksburg High School in Virginia, I went with him and started calling the defense in 2015. The next year we won a state championship.
What I remember about winning it all
People think the trophy is the memory. For me it is the coaches' office. That staff was as close as any group I have been part of. We were a bunch of guys working hard together to win football games, and we loved doing it.
The players were the same way. They were a one-of-a-kind group, real and fun-loving, and they played hard for each other. It was one of the most fun teams and staffs I have ever been on.
From there I followed Thad to Mooresville for about four years, and later we coached together again at Lakeway Christian Academy in Tennessee.
The honest part
I did not take a straight line into this. When my playing days ended, I had no plans to stay in football. Later I left coaching because I was worn out and broke. I am not going to pretend that was an easy call, or that the money and the hours do not matter. They do, and they push a lot of good young coaches out of this job.
But every time I tried something else, it was not for me. The weight room, the coaches' office, a group of kids working for something bigger than themselves. That is where I fit. It took me two tries to believe it.