Former Guilford County Football and Baseball Coaching Great, turning 88 years old today:Happy Birthday Bill Slayton, born in the USA and born on the Fourth of July!!!!!

The ole’ coach who used to train young men down at Southeast Guilford High School, is turning 88 years old today, here on the Fourth of July/July 4, 2019….

This is a former high school football and baseball coaching great now 88, that spent his coaching and teaching time around the plate/diamond, and made his mark in Guilford County High School football coaching for many years, guiding the ‘Flying Falcons’, down at Southeast Guilford HS….

This old coach gave his heart and soul to his job of teaching and coaching young men and women and when he left SEG, he heart was broke(He hated to leave the Falcon Nest), but his spirit lived on(He gave it his best), and he carried that guided soul/spirit on to Eastern Guilford High School, and he gave the Wildcats the final days of his teaching career, a career that should have been completed at Southeast Guilford High School, but we don’t have enough 4th of July fireworks to relive all the days, back when the Falcons were flying under the leadership of the old military captain, Bill Slayton…

You had Slayton and Tom Hogan and those men could break you down, but the good part was, when they built you back up, you were a better man, and you could go on to that football field, like you were entering a battlefield, and with Slayton and his second-in-command, Tom Hogan, leading you, you were more than likely to come home after the Friday night game, having left the field of battle, Victorious…

The men like Bill Slayton did not stand for the “easy way home”….They taught you how to get things done the hard way, because they knew that someday, you would be out there in the fight, all by yourself, and you had to be trained and ready to survive…

Bill Slayton and his limited coaching staff, back in the day, got your ready and all around the Southeast Guilford side of our county, you still find young men from back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, now in their 60’s and 70’s that got their training under Bill Slayton and the “Fighting Falcons”, and those young men from back in the day, are now grown men, and leaders in their communities…

Slayton, as he was known to many from back in the old football and baseball coaching days at Southeast Guilford, he got you ready….And when you finished your training under Bill Slayton, you were ready for college, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, you were ready to charge BUNKER HILL and you might even want to go back and give Sam Hill a run for his money….

Slayton took young men like Don Causey and Buck Bain and many, many more, and he made them the next George Pattons and Harry Trumans….They were bringing back and becoming leaders like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln….These kids Coach Slayton trained were true Davy Crocketts, and Daniel Boones….

These men were not just there for the sports, they were there to become Champions, and that is how Coach Bill Slayton trained, The Falcons…..

And the crazy thing about all of this training Coach Slayton was doing is, he is still doing it today…

Go by the Strive Fitness Center(Battleground Avenue) on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday and you will find an 88 year-old former high school football and baseball coach, in there at Rob Walsh’s Strive Fitness, and this old coach is now training and keeping himself in shape, all 88 years of him…..

You have to love those old coaches that are still beating the drum and lifting the weights, and training like “Big Jim” Modlin used to say, “Training Like A Spartan”……

Slayton is still on schedule and he is right on time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at, ‘The Strive’….

It is keeping the old Coach alive and he is still going strong, and we wish him a long and prosperous year number 88, as heads on toward #89…

Coach Slayton still has it going on, and here are the other coaches we wrote about last year, that are still with us, and still ringing the Victory Bell…..

We still have Marion Kirby with us, he is the former head football coach at Page High School and a multiple State Championship winner, while leading his Pirates….

Dick(Richard) Kemp is still on board and coached back-to-back football State Champions, at Ragsdale High School…

C.K. Siler, the man who ran the football program for many years at Southern Guilford High School is still hanging tough and the days are getting tougher for Coach Siler, the grandfather of Daryl Brown, the current head football coach at Grimsley High School…Coach Siler won numerous conference championships and turned out quite a few college football players, during his tenure as the head coach at Southern Guilford/Sumner High School….

Coach Slayton took the Southeast Guilford Falcons to the 1968-69 State Football Semifinals, and he left his mark many times over at Southeast Guilford HS….They call him, “Coach” and the coach is still up and kicking well these days and on this day, July 4, 2019 he is celebrating his 88th birthday, and on this day and at this time, we take time to wish Coach Bill Slayton, a very Happy Birthday…

As we celebrate the birth of nation today, let’s also remember our old coach Bill Slayton, as he celebrates his birthday on this Thursday….To the USA, Happy Birthday #243 and for Coach Slayton it is #88, and for both the USA and ‘The Coach’, we are still counting, as they are still kicking…

God Bless the USA and God Bless Coach Bill Slayton and all of our former coaches that are still in our midst….

Coach Slayton served his country/nation with dedication in the military and he showed the same dedication during his 30-plus years of service in the Guilford County Schools System…

Born on the Fourth of July, Coach Bill Slayton and we all need to sing a line or two for the ‘Old Coach’ today:
Happy Birthday Coach Bill Slayton….

(Bill Slayton, a current member of the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame.)

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