Talking Football on a Monday afternoon, with Brandon Wiggins, head football coach for the Smith Golden Eagles/Video Interview with Coach Wiggins is Ready

Going into our afternoon stop at Ben L. Smith High School, over off of Holden Road and we got down to the field and were able to find the Golden Eagles head coach, Brandon Wiggins, and the Eagles had a very good turnout at practice today and it was just a matter of getting the weekend rust removed and the Eagles were warm, on a day that was already hot and humid, and Smith dug in and got the Monday blahs out of their system, with some warm-up running and then it was on to drills, and August work, as usual….

We had the chance to catch coach Brandon Wiggins, before he got too busy with practice, and here is how our question and answer session went this afternoon….

Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Wiggins(Ben L. Smith High School):

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Wiggins: Playoffs, that would mean we would really need to be around (8-3) overall to secure our spot, and we need to win 3-4 Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference games and that will be a tough task, with Mount Tabor, Dudley and Southwest Guilford, in our conference…We need to set our goal to win the Conference…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Wiggins: Offense we have QB Jordan Williams set to be our leader, with Xavier Garner WR being another top offensive threat…Both Williams and Garner were among the conference leaders last season and we have Nkosi Alston set to be our leader at running back….On Defense we will be lead by our front four of Tazhaun Davis, Darrell Cromartie, Josh Presna and Nigel Moffitt-Shabazz…This is our experienced defensive and this is where our defensive leadership must begin….
For Special Teams we are looking to Andre Neely to lead us a our key Punt Return and Kickoff Return man…

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Wiggins: It was fun and competitive…We didn’t know the team concept as good as we should have, but we were a very competitive team back when Coach Tony McKee was still with us and that was in my freshman and sophomore years(at Ben L. Smith HS) and after he quit coaching at Smith and then he passed away, our team went downhill from there…Without Coach McKee’s leadership, we just did not have the team concept we needed….Coach McKee has been gone now nearly 14 years and he will always be remembered as one of the top football coaches to roam the sidelines, at Ben L. Smith High School…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Wiggins: Just love football all-the-way-around….We are trying to keep this program within the same system, and maintain the same coaching staff, and that leads to consistency and that is what the Ben L. Smith football program has been needing…Consistency….We want it to be like it was back when Coach McKee was here, and running this program….The key again is, Consistency….We want to WIN this Guilford County area….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Wiggins: I would be doing a sales job….Some sort of sports sales job….I majored in Sports Business Management in college, at Elon University and I could find myself in sports Team Management, with an emphasis on sales….

6)Best team in the county other than your Ben L. Smith Golden Eagles?
Coach Wiggins: Grimsley and that is the team I have for this spot…..

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Wiggins: We start practice with stretching/running and then we go into “Bags and Pursuit”…We want to start practice with a “Bang”….
After the opening work we go into a Defensive Period….

Our audio/video interview with Coach Brandon Wiggins is up here and ready for you….Just Click Below and it will be ready to go…..A true video show….