First Coaching Change for the 2018-2019 High School Football Offseason:Eric Rainey has resigned as the head football coach at Southwest Guilford HS

Eric Rainey has stepped down as the head football coach at Southwest Guilford High School….Coach Rainey has decided to spend more time with his family and he has a son, Jaren Rainey, that is now playing college football at East Carolina University and Coach Rainey wants to make it his first priority to now take the time to watch his son play football for ECU, and to take time to be with his family….

Coach Rainey has been on the high school football coaching trail for over 22 years and now he is ready to give that time back to the Rainey Family….

The Southwest Guilford Cowboys went (8-4) this past high school football season and the Cowboys fell in Round One of the NCHSAA playoffs, 33-21, at South Iredell….Southwest ended up at (3-3) in Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference play, and finished in fourth place in the conference, behind Mount Tabor, WS Parkland and Dudley HS, in that order for 2018….

In the 2017 season, Southwest Guilford, under Coach Rainey’s guidance, finished 9-4 overall and (5-1) in the Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference…That was the Cowboys’ most productive season while led by Coach Rainey, who spent six seasons as the head man for SWG Cowboys’ football…

SWG sent both Jaren Rainey and Nolan Johnson to East Carolina University, for DI College Football, from that 2017 Cowboys team….

Per MaxPreps stats and numbers, Coach Rainey went (35-37) overall at Southwest Guilford and the Cowboys conference mark under Coach Rainey was (12-20)….These numbers from over the past six seasons….

Coach Rainey left more than just wins and losses at Southwest Guilford, where he will remain on staff, as graduation education coordinator/coach…..

Coach Eric Rainey brought a certain discipline to the SWG Cowboys football program that they had not really seen before….Coach Rainey implored his young men/football players to be disciplined in their approach to the game, and made sure that each young man on his teams would be held accountable for their actions, it didn’t matter if it was the principal’s son, the minister’s son, the booster club president’s son, or even Coach Rainey’s son, these young men would have to answer for their actions on and off the football field….

Coach Rainey laid out a blueprint for success that could only be measured after these young men he coached are grown up and have families of their own, and then we will really know how he impacted these young Cowboys….

Eric Rainey worked as an assistant coach along-side Kevin Gillespie at Page High School before being named the SWG Cowboys head coach back in 2013….

Rainey attended, graduated and played college football for the Ferrum Panthers, in Ferrum, Virginia….Ferrum known for legendary coach Hank Norton and anyone that has heard of Ferrum has heard tell of Hank Norton, and most of the people that live in Ferrum, Virginia, remember Eric Rainey…..

A good man, who had a good plan, and he has helped a corral-load of SWG Cowboys along the way, as he paved a new football trail in High Point, at Southwest Guilford High School…It is obvious the success he had, when you look at the results from the building of the program and the last two years, really tell the tale-of-the-tape…

SWG Cowboys (17-8) in the last two seasons of 2017 and 2018, and that shows that the work Coach Rainey put in was really paying off…

Coach Rainey is now OFF, and his work at SWG as a football coach is done and we wish him well with his future time spent with the Rainey Family…

Now who will be the next head football coach at Southwest Guilford High School???

The search begins immediately, with SWG AD Brindon Christman taking on the Fact Finding Mission, to find/locate and secure Coach Rainey’s replacement…

Will the Cowboys look on their current staff for their new coach, with coaches like Derek Anderson having a strong resume and head coaching experience, will SWG go into their past and bring back former assistant Chuck Doak, now serving as the head coach at a charter school, down near Monroe, North Carolina….Will SWG pull in a man with wealth of military and football experience/background and he has been an assistant coach for the past year over in Winston-Salem?????

Your guess is as good as mine, and with the outstanding job Mr. Brindon Christman did in finding Coach Rainey, there should be no problem in Coach Christman bringing in a new Cowboy ranch-hand that can carry on what Coach Eric Rainey has started…..

Again best of luck Coach Rainey and we hope he finds a wealth of post-football success, as he rides into the sunset and we also hope we see him again, some time down the road, back on the high school football trail…It is not easy to lose good ones like Coach Rainey, but we know he is doing what is best, for him and his family…..

**********We will be adjusting this post over the next couple of days, as necessary…..Most of this is coming from memory and I got hit more than once in the football game, back on Thanksgiving Day…….**********

PRESS RELEASE sent tonight from Southwest Guilford High School:

Southwest Guilford High School with a heavy heart would like to announce that Coach Eric Rainey has stepped down as our Head Football Coach. Over his six years as the leader of the Cowboy program, he ends his tenure with a 35-37 overall record and 12-10 record in conference play. The Cowboys qualified 4 out of 6 seasons for the 4A-3A NCHSAA playoffs winning and hosting its first home playoff game since 1983 last year vs. Statesville HS. The Cowboys also advanced twice to the 2nd round of the playoffs during the 2015 and 2017 seasons. Coach Rainey inherited a program that hadn’t had a lot of success from 2000-2014. Under his leadership, the Cowboys have had 35 All-Conference players, 1 Conference Defensive Player of the Year, 3 NC Shrine Bowl Players, 2 NCCA West All-Star Players and 25 scholarship football players. Coach Rainey will be missed for the great qualities and character building relationships that he has established with our players. He has defined our program by holding our student-athletes to the highest of academic standards and taught so many valuable life lessons to our student-athletes through the game of football. Our school and athletic department would like to thank both him and his entire family for six wonderful years as our Head Football Coach!

2013                                       2-9                                       Eric Rainey

2014                                       3-8                                       Eric Rainey

2015                                       6-7, conference 3-2             Eric Rainey *Advanced to the second round of state Playoffs

2016                                       7-5, conference 1-4             Eric Rainey *Advanced to the playoffs, lost to Watauga 49-50

2017                                       9-4, conference 5-1             Eric Rainey *Advance to second round, lost to AC Reynolds 21-7

2018                                       8-4, conference 3-3             Eric Rainey *Advanced to the 3A playoffs losing to S. Iredell 33-21

7 thoughts on “First Coaching Change for the 2018-2019 High School Football Offseason:Eric Rainey has resigned as the head football coach at Southwest Guilford HS

  1. Good luck Coach! Now SWG go right now to Kernersville and get Coach Beal the East Forsyth Defensive Coordinator! That hire will be a game changer for the Cowboys!

  2. There is no doubt about it, Aaron Beal would make an excellent head football coach for any team in our area…Definitely has his stuff together….

    Wonder if he has any contacts or connections at SWG?

  3. I’ve been saying for years now that Coach Beal would be a great HC. I know NW Guilford made a run at him a few years ago but he turned it down according to someone very close to the situation. He’s been known for putting together some amazing defensive units under Todd Willert at East Forsyth. Lots of D-1 players and Shrine Bowl players have come out of East Forsyth this past 4 years. His stock will def. go through the roof if East Forsyth can bring home the 4A State Title this year! He’s a great young players coach! He would have kids that would want to transfer to the SW district just to play for him.

    As far as connections to SW I don’t think so Andy. He came from the NW Guilford Community. He coached under Woodruff from the early years I think in 07 or 08 and helped build that NW Defense into a conference champion now he’s helping build East Forsyth into a State Championship type team. Hire him right after a State Title if they could some how win it this season would create a lot of buzz in the SWG community!

  4. Hey how bout you guys leave our DC alone LOL! Coach Beal has helped build one of the most dominate defensive units in the State under to leadership of Head Coach Todd Willert. If you take away the garbage time TDs scored at the end of the game with 3rd and 4th string players on the field the EF defense has maybe given up 10 or 11 TDs all season with the #1 defense on the field. That’s one insane stat through 12 games! Sorry Cowboys fans but I see Coach Beal staying with Coach Willert and trying to win a State Title.

  5. Andy that was a very good article about Coach Rainey. He and his staff turned around a program that was down and out in 2012. He changed the culture and did things the right way. I wish the comment section was used to congratulate and honor him. Instead you got people talking about the next head coach. There is plenty of time for that, right?

  6. I think we were able to put a pretty positive feeling out there on the post and the reason being, Coach Rainey, leaves everyone, for the most part, with a positive feeling….

    You can’t satisfy everyone, but that man put together a very solid program that others on the outside and looking in were very impressed with….

    I think that is what makes this job so desirable and it is one of those things, that if you want the job, you better get on over there and get your name in the hat….

    Great/Excellent people to work with at SWG, in AD Brindon Christman, a local man, out of Guilford College and you have boys basketball coach Guy Shavers, came out of UNCG and knows the importance of local support and you have baseball coach Reid Holmes, out of Western Guilford HS and SWG has been fortunate to have him on board all these years, and I’m sure Western would have loved to have gotten him back in “The Hive” and stolen him from “The Ranch”….

    SWG will be a great fit for some coach and that is why the interest is so high….

    Hard to hold that part back and for what Coach Rainey did, the new man will have to realize that the groundwork has been laid and the new coach must build upward from there…

    Coach Rainey has laid down the foundation for a solid high school football program and whoever takes over must not forget, who got the ball a rolling….

  7. You want us to have a parade for the guy? We said thank you but he resigned. We need a new Head Coach!

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