from Joe Sirera on Twitter/@JoeSireraNR:
Jared Rolfes will not return for a fourth season as @pagepirateFB coach, AD Matt Harder confirms in a text.
Page went 20-17 overall and 1-3 in the playoffs in Rolfes’ three seasons as the Pirates’ coach.
CLICK HERE for more on the football departure of Coach Rolfes from Page HS, from Joe Sirera, the News and Record…
First and foremost I would like to thank Rolfes and his staff for the little things that they did do right for the kids and the community at Page. It was just one of those situations where his experience and leadership didn’t quite fit at a place like Page. That doesn’t mean that Rolfes isn’t a good coach, because I think the future is bright for him, it just wasn’t to be at Page.
It seems like the administration agreed with the hardcore fans at Page all along. We are glad they saw what we did. Now it’s time to get the right guy in there to lead our young men with fundamentals, discipline, grit and determination
Not sure why it stuck a bunch of random question marks in there but whatever (:
Still a lot of questions out there as far as the Page situation goes, but all of the question marks that popped up in your post have been cleared up….
If Page has the same schedule that they had this year with Highland Springs, East Forsyth, West Forsyth, and Grimsley will hard to catch up with for a couple of years, not sure how much direct change you are going to see, no matter who the coach is…It will take some time on the part of the new staff and some patience on the part of the Page administration..
If the hardcore fans are controlling what happens at Page, then I’m not sure anyone can properly evaluate this situation…The fans can not run a sports program from behind the scenes…
The coaches and the players are the ones who put in the work, and I have never seen a fan on the field or in the weight room doing anything that could help a team..
The fans want to soak up all of the fun and success that their team may incur, but the team and the players take the blame when the all seems to be going wrong and all the fans do, is sit back and talk and most of the time and I won’t say all of the time, but the fans don’t know where they are coming from, because most them have never been there…
Never been there in June, July or early August when the real work is being done, and you(the players and coaches) do the real work whether you have success or not….
At the end of the day, the fans just walk away, but the coaches and the players have to look in the mirror….
Tough price these coaches and players pay and at least the coaches are receiving some pay, but not a lot in return for all of their work…The players are not being paid now, but who knows, by 2025, if you sell your own T-shirts, the players may get a bonus…
The fans know so much, but do they really???
And part of the other side of the fence says the fans pay to get into the games and therefore they have a right to express they concerns/opinions about what they are paying to see…
It is a very foggy overall situation, but maybe Page will strike gold in their new football coaching hire, I hope they do…
But, at the end of the day, you have to remember that there is more to the game than the wins and losses and Coach Rolfes did teach the right/correct values and he always seemed to totally have his players’ best interests at heart….
If you are just looking at wins, and hoping to wipe out the losses, then good luck moving forward, but a new day is coming and I do hope it is a good one for you…
No one ever sat back and blamed the players. It was the coaching over the past three years that was always in question.
No one said the fans are controlling anything. It was just a huge sigh of relief that the administration at Page was seeing the same thing that we were seeing. Because afterall the existing administration at Page has only been at Page for a couple years, and the diehard fans have seen what it takes over the years for the past 40-50 years and we saw how things were going south early on.
As for the schedule, well.. it is what it is. Better to right the ship now than to keep stumbling further down the road. If Page somehow rehires Gillespie, then I don’t see much of a transitional period coming into effect.
If you are talking about the coaches then you are in many ways talking about the players too…They are all part of the ONE team…
This is a much tougher time to stay on top than it was back in the coach Marion Kirby Era..That time has come and gone…
Maybe this is how the new cycle exists…
The former Page staff before Coach Rolfes had success and they even won a State Title and played for another State Title, but when things started to go South, the fans wanted that staff gone too and that staff got out of dodge, on their own…And now the fans want that staff back….
These high-profile schools are harder to maintain in sports/athletics and maybe some of the high-profile schools should settle into more of a low-profile for a while…
For sure stress the winning, but domination and winning year-in/year-out, that is much harder to come by these days…
I’m not sure if even Coach Johnny Roscoe could win ever year, year-in/year-out, in this current climate…
I don’t know any Page fans that wanted the the Gillespie staff out at Page. I think that was a big misconception. Things never started to go south with that staff.. Page went to back to back state title games, and that is just silly to think that losing in title games to better teams is going south. Things didn’t start going south until Gillespie left the program because he found a better opportunity for him an his family, pay wise, not because he got out of Dodge….. come to think of it he was gearing up for another season at Page in late July when he left.
“These high-profile schools are harder to maintain in sports/athletics and maybe some of the high-profile schools should settle into more of a low-profile for a while…
For sure stress the winning, but domination and winning year-in/year-out, that is much harder to come by these days…”
Page will never settle into a low-profile program, we will not let that happen. The kids deserve more than that….
North Carolina (and school systems like GCS and CMS) need to adopt South Carolina’s mindset, paying your high school coaches more keeps the great leaders in your own backyard, enriching the communities with disciplined young student-athletes who have learned teamwork and working hard.
Page should not have any problems finding a new coach. There were plenty in the bleachers. Let’s see if any of them want to grab a whistle and come down on the field.
Wish Coach Rolfes the very best. Good man….great family man.
If any High School football program in this area wants to succeed year after year after year, so much support and commitment has to start with the local youth football programs and middle school programs that feed these High School Programs. If your a head coach, and you want to survive a program, build a program, you better know who your feeder programs are. Instant gratification is nice, but next to impossible. Your success is the kids in the youth leagues, and their parents, coaches, Middle School players. I can tell you this, Ragsdale will be good in a few years, High Point Central possibly, Most definitely Northwest Guilford, Northern Guilford is in trouble with their feeder programs. Eastern Guilford looks good, Reidsville, always has good local teams and middle school teams, now Page, you better start supporting your local feeder teams instead of pouring all your heart into just your instant gratification, and then throwing coaches under the bus. It starts by developing these kids early and building programs. My two cents/sense.
Yes Pager, Page had some very good years in there, but they also had the (3-9/started the season at 0-7), (6-6) and (7-5) years and there was plenty of fan unrest when those years hit…I think the former Page staff was glad to get out of here…The fans were not satisfied and there some fan apathy/unrest when they were not successful in the last two State Championship runs vs. Mallard Creek and Wake Forest….
This will be an interesting time of transition and it will be interesting to see who the new coach will be…Who knows maybe the new coach will be moving in next week, or may be later on during the second semester/after Christmas…
Grimsley has gained an edge and we will see if Page can bridge the gap, be it only a one-year gap for now…
The real part of the Page problem package seems to be losing to Grimsley…That always gets the fan base at Page going crazy and threatening to jump off the Cone Blvd. bridge…
If Grimsley advances far in the playoffs that will really get Page stirred up….
Yeah keep treating your coaches like dirty laundry. The tide has turned.
LOL leave it to a Grimsley fan to act like they didn’t have 6 different coaches in a 10 year span from 2006 to 2016.
Page has had 5 different coaches since 1973.
Seems like the other way around.
@Andy
If that was the case then why did 2 coaches from Gillespie’s staff stay at Page after he left for Asheboro if they wanted out so bad and was “glad” to get out of here? It seems like you don’t have the whole story.
Maybe there was a little bit of unrest about getting blown out in back to back title games from some, but rest assured that 95% of Page fans, including me, were very happy and content with winning conference championships and making playoff runs more often than not.
Take a knee, Rolfes.
It is sad when us idiot fans and parents run the program. We don’t even know how to motivate our kids to pay attention and study but if we watch a few NFL pregame shows we think we are qualified to fire coaches.
Your success is the kids in the youth leagues, and their parents, coaches, Middle School players. I can tell you this, Ragsdale will be good in a few years, High Point Central possibly, Most definitely Northwest Guilford, Northern Guilford is in trouble with their feeder programs.
And what makes you think that NW and NG are in trouble with feeder programs. NG has had a feeder program for over 10 years and the 27 seniors this year started playing together in that system when they were 8 years old. The numbers at the HS level at NG are the highest in the history of the school. As for NW I know they have combined to youth programs into one and believe they are as strong as ever. The key to a successful feeder program is the support of the HS admin and Coaching staff. NG has had that since the beginning. Continued support for youth programs by the community also strengthens those programs.
Say what you want about NG, but the trend there has gone up every year since Coach Westberg has taken over in wins and losses. There has been struggles and frustrations but still headed in the right direction. Always tough to follow a successful coach and or a namesake of the stadium you play in.
@andy Durham @spencer Dixon. Both you make absolutely no sense. Andy says “ not even Johnny Roscoe can win in today’s climate”. You sound ridiculous. Ol Johnny Roscoe had three guys who are currently in NFL ! Pretty sure that Ray Handley could even win with them. Just to add, he hightailed it out of there when the “ cupboard got bare”. Left the current coach with no players and ran down to Black Hawk down farm. But he still loves to show his face every once in a while to get that ever needing adoration. Almost like a heroin addiction needing their fix. I know from experience. Spencer, what the hell did you know about feeder programs? That’s the problem today We look at a bunch fifth graders and say “ I am not sure there going to be able to cut it.” Northern Guilford has a QB that can throw now. But the prior two years they had a QB that could run but his accuracy was in question and another QB that couldn’t throw the ball 30 yards down field. So no one really knows.
To be honest with you, when coaches leave they don’t always take their entire staffs…
Circumstances dictate more what goes on in high school more than it does in college…
You don’t see many entire high school football coaching staffs moving from one school to another together…Coach Gillespie and Coach Weeks have been a great team/staff working together, but that has pretty much been the staff over the years…No doubt about it, two of the best working together that you will find…
New staff coming in from someplace, and when you talk about a staff, you are mainly talking about the head coach and maybe one or two key assistants…
At least that is the way I have always seen it…
New day dawning….
@Deer Looping Luke
As for feeder systems they don’t always create superstars but create numbers, and in the today’s environment of football you need numbers. Now what they do with those numbers is up to the coaches. That’s why they are called coaches.
I know that the QB they have now started playing there when he was 7 and the other 2 from the last several years played in the feeder system too. Yeah one could run and one could throw both seem to have worked out and playing at the next level.
Just a fan of the game,
The key is not the fans or coaches, it’s the kids. I listen to a lot of kids that did not buy into the new staff. No corrective coaching on sidelines, no passion. I heard many kids call the new staff soft. I only seen one game that they truly beaten by way better talent. That was the East Forsyth game. Many losses were due to not understanding situational football which happens in practice but time and again I saw bad situational football which cost the games. They have the talent to be good, QB, RB’s, Slot Receivers, need some work on the line but the right system can work. Defense they are losing a lot of strong talent but I believe they are a couple of pass rushers away and hopefully they can find someone to replace that middle LB who was all world to me and keep them in many games.
What Spencer knows about feeder programs idk, but I know a little about it. I started it with the help of several others whose kids play at NG a little over 10 years ago. The whole goal of the program was to increase numbers, teach kids the ultimate team sport, and to grow the community support in the Northern District.
I like to think that it has been accomplished. I have been removed from it for a few years but nothing satisfies me more than to see all those kids out there practicing in the fall in front of the school. Though numbers may be down I know the current leadership of that program continues to work hard and be successful.
It has produced quite a few good players and I am sure will continue to do so.
I wholeheartedly agree about the Middle Schools..That is where the future of the high school football is…Keep those kids together and move them up together and you will have some strong varsity programs one day…
The feeder schools are the key…This year we saw some very good Middle School football talent in Guilford County and the future on the varsity levels should be strong when these kids move up and continue to develop…They must continue to develop and stay in the same system that they grew up in, in order for their varsity teams to be successful…
Hats off to the Middle School football coaches and the job that they do, getting the kids ready for high school football…
“Just to add, he hightailed it out of there when the “ cupboard got bare”. Left the current coach with no players and ran down to Black Hawk down farm. “
Hmmmm…sort of sounds like what Rolfes did at NW – running off coaches and players before he left.
And from someone who has had a player in Rolfes system and in his replacement at NW. The differences are astonishing. Players report practices being run more efficiently with replacement coach, new coach having a better understanding of game (football IQ), strength coaching is much improved, new coach taking the time to find out where each player fits best and taking the time to look at others with potential/work ethic instead of only the ones headed to D1 offers.
Right now the issue is numbers. No team will be successful without a full roster. And only a few teams will be successful unless schools stop allowing kids to jump from one school to another to bulk up a certain team. Have some loyalty and attend where you live! If you are that deserving of a scholarship, you’ll get it but changing schools 2 or 3 times for football is absurd and the parents should be ashamed.
@spencer Dixon Last year one could run and the one could NOT throw. As for playing at the next level , Who cares? People consider playing for the Greensboro Pride “ next level” and they are a joke.
@ ALL
My post created a lot of dialogue on this topic of feeder programs and the future of HS coaches, players and teams. Just like Andy said, the feeder schools/programs are the key. The HS coaches must be involved. @ Spencer Dixon, I never said Northwest Guilford was in trouble. Their Youth program and Middle school program nearly all went undefeated and have great talent at all positions and have a great CULTURE brewing. Northern has returning players currently, but may suffer down the road, it what I was referring too, based on what they have currently underneath. Look at what the youth programs and middle school programs are doing in High Point??? Which points directly into the Ragsdale and HP Central area..The parents, coaches are engaged with football and create an atmosphere of winning in High Point. Reidsville, well enough Said. Page, yes, previous years, much stability, but what about their current middle school feeder programs?? And Grimsley’s? They got hammered this year by Jamestown and Northwest. What does that tell you?? Look at the big picture…
I have read through the comments and I find it funny that the words “build it through the youth program”, I can attest that just because there is success at the youth and middle school level doesn’t translate to the high school level. I blame parents, lets move our kids to more successful programs instead of encouraging them to be a part of building one. We live in a “lets take the easy way out” mentality culture, and sports are a big repercussion for it.
Here is a list of potential coaches for Page, from Chris Hughes over at CarolinaPreps.com:www.carolinapreps.com
(On the list you will see Doug Robertson and Rodney Brewington….They were very high on the list when the job came open and Coach Gillespie left for Asheboro…I think Coach Doug Robertson, then at Eastern Guilford, was the #1 choice for Page, but he couldn’t get all of the details worked out, and he ended up at Thomasville.)
The Chris Hughes laundry list for the new head football coach at Page High School….
If I am Page, I am going after an A-List head coach, nobody less. Here are an example of some of the guys they may go after.
1. Kevin Gillespie: Former Page coach, an obvious choice.
2. Todd Willert: East Forsyth
3. Kennedy Tinsley: SE Guilford
4. Josh McGee: Reagan
5. Rodney Brewington: South View
6. Doug Robertson: Thomasville
7. Adrian Snow: West Forsyth
8. Mark Holcomb: Oak Grove
9. Brian Flynn: North Davidson
10. Antwon Stevenson: Glenn
11. Tim Devericks: Davie
12. Steve Burdeau: Lee County
13. Fritz Hessenthaler: Southern Alamance
14. Martin Samek: Rolesville
15. Eric Morman: North Mecklenburg
Best news all season for Page football program, would love to see G back or either East Forsyth coach, I would even consider bring someone from Dudley staff. Rolfes was a questionable hire since day one!
Andy hey some fans are parents volunteers and go through some pains and work hard too. I will never blame a hs kid. I would never personally attack a coach. But if the coach is bad and/or playing politics favoritism or booster ball ill call it out. Not saying rolfes did that ok. That is just me. Coaches takes credit then they should accept blame as well, it comes with the job. I dont buy into coach should not be criticized stuff sorry. Rolfes probaly a decent guy honestly have not heard much good about his coching ability. End of the day regardless of schedule etc it did not work out. Thinking rolfes gonna be ok going forward. Best of luck to him
Also not sure if rolfes ever was able to beat dudley did he? Likely also a big factor in all this.
Well you can certainly take Fritz off that candidate list. With having to see his nemesis in Dudley on the schedule and the offense he runs it’ll be a wash with Buccaneer parents filing transfer paperwork over to Grimsley. Page ain’t Mallard Creek so they’re simply gonna have to settle in and respect the process with a coach who envisions building a program. Just like what Grimsley is doing.
@Andy Durham
Chris Hughes is crazy if he thinks that some of those names will be coming to Page.
Maybe I’m crazy for posting it, but this what we have/this is what we got….
As the man over at Page(Dale Holder) says, bring ’em and ring ’em, if you got ’em…
Maybe a more conventional way to say it would be, “Just Bring It” and we are just trying to bring it to ya…
And this is what we have so far….
I just want to know if Smith is going to step up and do something. This program has been in shambles since Brewington left.
You heard it here first……….Bill Cowher coming back to coaching and coming to the Kirby.
Somebody said they saw Deion Sanders hanging out over at the Church Street Diner the other night….Maybe he was on his way over to Page, to see about any upcoming openings….
(Who knows, maybe he will bring Charlie Weis with him.)
By the way never knock a kid for transferring. So coaches can come and go but youngsters can’t ? Give the kids a fair shot and they will stay. Don’t pass them over for booster legacy kids and they will stay. I would actually allow open transfers in guilford. It would help make these coaches be honest and fair.
If anyone has other legit names for the Future Coach’s List send them our way and this can give others a chance to see who you think is the leading candidate for this head football coaching job at Page High School…
Coach Gillespie seems to be the leading candidate on most charts/lists, and do most of you see Page going in that direction???
Obvious question, now that the job has become open…
And let’s be sure to go with suggestions that are semi-legit and ones that we can print and it least leave up here for sensible and safe public viewing….
Are many of you still sold on the Chris Hughes list?
I wouldn’t hold my breath on Gillespie coming back. More than likely, Page gives a young upstart a shot at HC. Atleast this time around they aren’t jumping the gun so quickly to get a hire in place.
My guess is that Coach Gillespie has his 30 years in and will go to SC. Coach Robertson makes a lot more money at T’Ville than he could make in GC so why would he come. He is a 12 month employee. How about Earl Bates?
William Rochelle
Why all the discussion on Gillespie? With many good options, why would they bring him back? Didn’t he leave Page in the middle of spring workouts? Believe he was 5-28 at Asheboro over last 3 years?
Agree with earlier comment. Take your time and scan the market.
Coach in Asheboro was a tough task, Asheboro lost tons of talent. I wonder who will coach at Smith regardless they will have their hands full, Smith has not been successful since Eric Ebron. Coach G was very successful at Page but maybe we do need to start fresh with a good up and coming young coach. Page has some good young talent if none of them decide to transfer.
page is loaded with young talent. bringing in the right coach could possibly keep them from transferring and page can very possibly take off again in in the near future
@Page alum……..The reason for Asheboro not winning games was not that they didn’t have talent. I’ll leave it at that.
Agree the young talent is there at Page.
@nawdog so what would you say is there reason, I also heard that its a lot of politics is Asheboro, if you not doing it the Asheboro way they don’t want you. Coach G was success at Page so it cant be him for why they were losing
Another name @andydurham Tripp Welborne i know he’s still involved in sports somewhere maybe an AD at a high school also i think former page standout William “squirt” Rochelle would be a great candidate
To be a HC in high school, do you have to be able to teach in the school?
@Page Maybe politics did play into it, ya never know. I wouldn’t doubt it. Also, I have found that today’s football world is not what it was 30 years ago. You have to put in quite a bit of off season work to be good and that can go back to the parents. A kid may be playing, but I can almost point out a kid that has been putting in off season work and a kid that hasn’t. A lot of parents don’t subscribe to that train of thought, but it makes a difference from what I can tell. On the “area leaders” post I know for a fact that a large number of them put in sport and position specific work int he off season. It’s not up to the coach and I don’t think a coach can make a kid a great player without the kid putting in extra work.
If Page could get Tripp Welborne to come back here that would be a coup and it might take a coup…
Current Athletic Director at Lawrenceville School, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey…Big-time prep school/Private Day and Boarding School grades 9-12…
S.A./Sullivan Anthony Tripp Welborne, III H’58 P’21
Athletic Department
Director of Athletics; Co-Chair of Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Education: McColl Graduate School of Business – M.B.A.
Queens University of Charlotte – M.B.A.
University of Michigan – B.G.S.
Reach him at twelborne@lawrenceville.org
Check him out at the school site, when you CLICK
https://www.lawrenceville.org/directory?deptId=25185
With the job he has up in New Jersey, not sure he would consider making the move back to Greensboro, but I guess you never know….
To be a head coach you can teach/monitor in-school suspension, be the Dean of Students, be a Graduation Coach during the day, and there are other ways for the coach to be on staff during the school day and not be a direct classroom teacher…
But to be on the outside during the day and just come in and coach a sport, not sure if that would work in today’s GCS System…
Many times it works out OK on the Private School level, where maybe your basketball coaches and baseball coaches are not part of the regular teaching staff, but that works best for more veteran coaches who have been part of the teaching system in the past…
@curious yes you have to have a degree i believe an associates
I’m sure Page will bring in a big name head coach with a lot of success that can try and keep up with Grimsley and the success they are having now with Coach Brown and his staff. But here is a thought if cant bring in an A list name coach, what about hiring a young coach that can build the program back, such as Darryl Browns younger brother Calvin Brown. He’s been the head coach down in Randolph county at providence grove for a few years now and has done a great job leading that program.
I know it wont happen but that would surely amp up the Page/Grimsley rivalry.
Coach Calvin Brown at Providence Grove…
Coach Calvin Brown and Coach Darryl Brown both grandsons of legendary Southern Guilford/Sumner coach, C.K. Siler…
2 coaches Page needs right now. Either Coach Stone DC at Mallard Creek or Coach Beal DC at East Forsyth. Young State Championship Coordinators that connect well with today’s players. Both are great defensive minded guys. Those are my 2 picks if you dont get a Coach G or Willert
My shortlist in no particular order:
Kevin Gillespie, Kennedy Tinsley, Aaron Beal, Tripp Stone, Josh McGee, Doug Robertson