Bill Slayton’s birthday, 84 years old/young:Born to be Wild and now Mild on the 4th of July

He was “Born to be Wild”, a hard-nosed high school football and baseball coach, a former military man who served his country and that makes this day even more important/special, Bill Slayton, from Granite Falls, North Carolina, was born on the 4th of July and he served his country well…

Served us in the military and as a high school teacher and coach…

Coached the Southeast Guilford Falcons to the 1969 NCHSAA 3-A State Baseball Title and took the Falcons to several conference championships in football…Saw that baseball team be led by a young man who later turned pro with the Baltimore Orioles organization, Terry Clapp…Saw his early football teams be led by future FBI agent Don Causey….

He taught Falcons at Southeast Guilford and Wildcats at Eastern Guilford and helped countless kids along the way…Youmans, Modlins, Pannells, Hacketts, the kid that worked hard to get through Eastern Guilford, later played football at Western Carolina and then went on to become a high school principal(Lance Sockwell), and the list goes on and on…

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…

Bill Slayton was born to be Wild and he became more tame with the times…He changed with the times and did become more Mild as the years moved on…

Health issues have caused the “Old Coach” to depend on others more over the past year and he has had to let the doctors do their business and let nature and the good Lord up above run the course…

Eighty-four on the 4th, that is a lot to be thankful for here on the Fourth and we are thankful to still have the “Old Coach” around and kicking ups some dust and it is good to still have him around to tell us about the night his Falcons trailed Dick Kemp and his Ragsdale Tigers at halftime and then the SEG Falcons came back and beat Ragsale in the second half with a 135 pound runningback/linebacker, Charlie Gamble III leading the charge…

Possibly the most important thing about Coach Slayton, as we look back over the years is the fact that he loved his work….He loved the coaching and the teaching and loved the winning too…Hard work equaled positive results in most cases….

The thing that I feel the military and the coaching/teaching taught Coach Slayton, is that it taught him how to figure out a way to win and how to be victorious on all fronts…

How to be a leader and how to take your troops into battle and come back out on top, whether it be in the Armed Forces or with the Armed Falcons…

Coach Slayton will be inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame this Fall and that might be the happiest day of his life….He entered the battle and that part will show he came out victorious…

Helping kids find out who they really are and what they can really do, that is what Coach Bill Slayton accomplished…

He came in Wild, but he now walks on Mild, as the years have humbled this man who now must call on his faith and his wife Darcy to keep him in order…He’s always been a fighter, but now he calls out for help and knows his calls will be answered as he heads toward 85 and on some days his life feels like it is spent on I-85…

The “Old Coach” has gone from Wild to Mild, but his heart is strong and we hope his days on earth will be long….

This man finds solace now in knowing others are doing well and that he can keep on moving and that some day soon he will hit his stride again and he will be able to return to the Rob Walsh-run “Stride Fitness Center”, on Battleground Avenue….

The “Old Coach” has gone from Wild TO Mild, but the miles have been good to Bill Slayton and we hope the road will roll on for this young man who came down from the falls(Granite Falls) and now calls Guilford County and GreensboroSports his home….

Happy 84th Birthday, Coach Bill Slayton….