We posted for you early last week, that Western Guilford High School athletic director Chris Causey had retired from teaching and all of his athletic duties at Western Guilford High School…We talked to WG assistant AD Jerrod Harris last Thursday, over at the Western Guilford Middle School boys basketball game…Coach Harris was there watching his son play for the WG Tigers…He said he is currently in charge of the athletics programs at Western Guilford HS…That was what we were speculating here last week…
This week we learn that Western Guilford is also now looking for a new head football coach…
from Joe Sirera at the News and Record….CLICK HERE for full post…
Brian Terwilliger, Western’s football coach since January 2018, resigned Jan. 3, GCS said.
Terwilliger’s Western teams went 9-28 overall and 4-18 in conference play during his four seasons as coach. The Hornets’ best year was 2019, when they got off to a 4-2 start before fading to 5-6 and just missing the NCHSAA Class 3-AA playoffs. Western never won more than one conference game in a season during his tenure.
I don’t mean to try and dig up old graves, but back in the OLD days, we used to win football games at Western Guilford…Back in the time that I was around the old Black and Gold, we won 20 games, lost 8, and had two ties, over a three-year period…It didn’t hurt that we had the best quarterback in WG history, in Mark Guenther….
And if I would have been calling the plays, I would have had him running the ball 10-15 times per game…I think his nickname was “Swifty”….Should have been running him more on some naked bootlegs and QB keepers on the real wide outside runs…Saw him last week, as he was reffing the WG-NEG middle school basketball games…And he can still go…Having guys like Herbert Pressley, Don Tatum, John and Glenn Morris and others didn’t hurt our chances either…You see, we weren’t that big, but you didn’t want to face us…
We had the third best team in the county back then…Ragsdale at #1, Page at #2, and Western Guilford at #3….And Western Guilford stayed at #3 or better, for at least 10 years…You wouldn’t believe it these days, but that is how it went…
So, what caused the difference back then??? The stinkin’ weight room….
You went in there and you didn’t come out until you have maxxxxed out…I remember doing 25 pull ups, 25 dips, 25 abdominal flexions, and then maxing out with 250 on the bench, and that was 20 reps with 250….That was just how it was done at that time at Western Guilford…It wasn’t a bunch of talk like it is now, it was a bunch of work…I guess some kids today can talk and work at the same time, but not back in the day…Work now, talk later, or let the other guy do the talking, and then you kicked his butt on the field, because you did the work, and he was doing the talking…If you don’t believe what I’m saying, I bet you that there are still plenty of people out there, who will still back me up…
Doug Henderson and Bill Hollifield made us work, and I guess that is why they have the football stadium and the new gymnasium named after them, and I guess one day they will name the weight room after me, or some of my former lifting mates…
Maybe Western Guilford needs to go after one of those Grimsley assistant football coaches, or one of the Dudley assistant coaches…If they want to ask me, I can tell them which one to get…Western might bring in Chuck Henderson, to try and bring back some of that old Doug Henderson magic….
The winning days could return, but not without a lot of work and direction….It all starts when you walk in that weight room, and you go to work and it is not about music, or yelling, or loud noise…It’s focus brother, focus….
I think Western needs to vigorously target Joe Rigsbee. He is currently the Defensive Coordinator at Grimsley and is the so called “Leader of the Darkside”. His defenses have been LIGHTS OUT over the past few years at Grimsley. You can’t lose games if the other team doesn’t score.
When this subject first came up, that was one of the First Names that crossed my mind.
Another crazy thought that goes along with what Carl is saying…My senior year back at Western Guilford, wayyyyy back in the day, we had FIVE shutouts that season…Beat one team on Monday night, 45-0, and beat the next team on Friday night, 56-0…That was a busy week…But that is how it works…Page beat us 13-7, and still remember sticking my leg across the goal line, that Page running back hitting it, and being stopped for the extra point, on Page’ second TD…Defense is the calling card of your team…
Here is my shortlist for the future leader of our BLACKHATS
Koron Nickelson (DC at SEGHS)
Aaron Beal (DC at EFHS) – longshot home run hire!!
Joe Rigsbee (DC at GHS)
Carl is right. If WG is going to ever get back to the BLACKHAT era of football, it starts with one of these three guys. We all know Beal is the #1 Defenisve mind in the Triad, maybe all of NC. WG would have to roll out the BLACK AND GOLD carpet to pull him in. Leaves you with Rigsbee or Nickelson – two of the best defenses in GSO in 2021!! Cannot go wrong there!!
Why would anyone want to play football for Western right now, let alone coach there? Seriously, why?
Any kid who lives in Western’s attendance zone and is a talented football player is going to go somewhere else in Guilford County for high school and no one is going to stop him. It’s open enrollment, with all the academies and special programs, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. Nobody wants to go some place where it’s going to take a few years to rebuild, so no one does. Look at all of the kids who bailed on Page before Doug Robertson took over and started fixing things there.
And Western is not Grimsley (or Page) in terms of resources. Even if the Hornets hire a Grimsley assistant, what does he have to work with? That weight room Andy talked about was allowed to fall apart over the years and the only decent facilities are the ones connected to the relatively new gym.
The Western community just doesn’t care about football anymore. They’ve given up. All you have to do is go to a game to feel the apathy. The crowd, if you could call it that, at games is mostly fans of the opponent. Just sad.
It’s not just Western, either. Look at what’s happened at Northeast, Western, Smith, Andrews and Central in the last 5-10 years. You can’t win without players, and the redrawing of attendance zones that occurred when Northern opened killed Northeast (Tommy Pursley couldn’t pack fast enough) and Western (Northwest got a chunk of Western’s zone). Talented players in High Point don’t want to go to Central or Andrews because of all the crime/gang activity in both schools. Smith loses almost all of its athletes to Dudley or Grimsley, although both basketball programs are strong because of their coaches.
It’s going to take a lot more than a new coach to fix Western’s football program. It’s going to take some serious fundraising and some serious recruiting. (There, I said it.) Hey, how about Andy as AD?
Leave the Whirlies alone if he goes to Western it’s not gonna make a difference. Look at the overall coaching even at the Western middle school they need to change the culture first to where the kids want to play there. No player from Smith except #55 came to Grimsley. Smith has a Academy as well as Dudley with Open Academy also. Have a curriculum that fits. I think Western has the Engineering program that should attract a lot of students great program.
I agree with Reality Czech with it’s gonna take a lot more than a new coach.
I agree with Reality Czech it’s gonna take more than coaching moves
They should make me the Dean of Students/assistant AD…I would like to see them give kids some extra points on their daily work scores/test scores for attending games, and then have the students come back and give a written game report….I have seen this done before and it can work, and it gets more kids out to the games, but you have to have teachers and coaches that interact with the students, and it can’t be an act, it has to be real….
Reality check not Czech hit the nail in the head. Different era and western is toast. Any decent kid from western Guilford is going to be grabbed by grimsley or Dudley.
The western alumni not engaged enough. It is over Andy stick a fork in them.
Just the way it is and the new norm
Those names y’all called will never leave their current situation to go a program like western. Departing coach did a heck of a job given what he had to work with.
Funny that folks do not see that public school football in Guilford will all be about three teams if not already.
Dudley
Grimsley
Reidsville not even sure if it should be Guilford.
The rest will never compete with those three.
Reality Czech was spot on!!! That culture there is straight up terrible. I got to witness it first hand a few times and I haven’t seen anything like it. The kids quit so easily, practices are sloppy and they play VERY sloppy every game. The little bit of fans that show up just sit there looking sad. Shaw actually should’ve went to western but ended up at Grimsley, slade went to the middle school and was out of there, the only good young players with promising futures are on the way out as we speak…trust me I know. Can you blame them though? It starts at the top and at least they cleaned house because that was one of the biggest reasons the program failed. Former players who played for causey would say “I bet you they still run the same five plays” till this day. He hired someone who played for him and ran the same stuff. I know middle school kids right now who are already planning to not go to western. The reputation is so bad I feel bad for whoever takes that job. Its going to take the surrounding community, parents, etc to turn it around…oh yeah, I have intel and the coach they are bringing in is supposedly coming from out of state.
Not so fast… Page has too much support, tradition and history to just lay down for anyone and “never compete again.” Page has a great coach now and very promising up and coming talent. Grimsley is losing a lot next year and will come back down to earth a good bit. Be careful what you wish for….
They need more than just coaching. They need fundraising as well. Have you seen the band? They got like a small group of kids wearing regular clothes playing instruments in the stands and you hardly realize they’re there. The football team is still wearing old uniforms, probably the oldest in the county. It’s sad and from looking at the way they play they just need overall discipline instilled in them. I get it, you need talent to win a lot of games but western beat themselves in majority of their games. Almost every play they look confused on where to line up, false starts, bad snaps..basically every penalty you can think of to beat yourself. Before you win any games you have to instill a winning mindset in those kids so that they are at least competitive.
Why is Dudley and Grimsley the focal point? No one said a thing back in the day when everyone was taking their talent to Page I remember or when it was Northern turn. Let’s not look pass Northwest low key bringing people in .Stop complaining and help your local school out remember it takes a Village. And quit talking about Whirlies are going be back down Brown and staff and alumni/community does an outstanding job. PS regap The Whirlies are very young that 2024-2025 are loaded so leave the ship sinking. Face it Dudley and Grimsley’s turn stop throwing shade. I agree with Trueee I use to work at Western and they have tons of talent in that district they just don’t want to play for the staff. The basketball team has a lot off talent also and also looks out of sync.
Rigsbee would be a great hire.
Andy, remember it was not very long ago when Grimsley was the laughing stock of football programs in Guilford County. Everyone thought Darryl Brown was out of his mind to leave his home and winning program at Southern. For 2 years, Grimsley struggled, but they made it to the 3rd round of the state playoffs in year 3. Regional Final appearance year 4 and State Championship year 5. With the right people in place, it can be done at Western….
If you get the right people in place at Western Guilford, Western Guilford can win again…When Doug Henderson stepped down as the WG head coach, they later on brought in Charlie Griffin, and Charlie Griffin made Western Guilford a winner too….Coach Griffin had Anthony Saunders and others and that can get you running and winning in a hurry…
It is all about getting things going in the right direction and that starts with bringing in the right people…
Coach Brown and his staff changed the culture of Grimsley football and players wanted to start playing there again…The kids bought into what Coach Brown and his staff we teaching…Didn’t matter if they were black, yellow, green or white, everybody was buying in, and you could see the positive influence…Kids will work their tails off, but they need some positive reinforcement too, and that is what Coach Brown and his staff brought to Grimsley….They see a player walking around the campus at Grimsley, and it is “how are you doing today”, and “do you need any help with anything”….”You are are doing a good job, but I know you can do better”….Those type of comments can motivate a kid, and if you can reach him or her during the day, you will have their attention after school too….
WG needs that type of attention and direction….It is out there, and they need to find that right individual to lead their football program….
Additional/final thought….It takes more than just the head coach…He needs a good assistant coaching staff working with him too…You can see that at all of the best football programs in Guilford County…At Dudley, Grimsley, Northern Guilford, Page, and several others….
And another key part of our lunch time menu….Let’s leave the recruiting of players talk to another venue…It does not need to be a part of this current discussion….We can focus on the coach talk, and who the new coach might be, but let’s leave the recruiting of players talk to the other boards…If a school is doing the right things, players are going to want to go there, and the coaches don’t have to recruit….One of the hardest parts about so-called recruiting these days, is recruiting or keeping your own players’ interest up…That can be a chore within itself…But as far as coaches recruiting players from other schools, let’s leave that talk at the others boards….Who will the new coach be? A good topic in its own right……
Another name for the possible head coaching fire might be Chris Rusiewicz, the former head coach at Guilford College, right near Western Guilford High School…Coach Rusiewicz was an assistant head coach at Northern Guilford High School this past season, and you never know, he might be ready to get back into the head coaching ranks…Charlie Griffin had coached at several colleges before he came to WG….
Some good young head coaching candidates out there, such as Coach Rusiewicz, Joe Rigsbee, Denorris Best from Dudley High School, Aaron Beal at East Forsyth…Coach Beal might be waiting to see what Coach Willert is going to do over the next few years, and then Coach Beal might become the head man at East Forsyth….Just like tossing darts…Throw one toward the wall, and see which one sticks….
Of course a Grimsley fan will always bring up how other schools had players move in and now it’s their turn. Just remember it took multiple Page players to transfer over for Grimsley to finally win something in a very long time. Now that those kids are gone, things will be on more even playing field now. At least he is owning up to the fact that it took more than just the talent in Grimsley’s neighborhoods.
I have no problem with transfers whatsoever. I am not complaining about it. Transfers and recruiting happen all over this country. Facts are those two programs are ahead of the rest right now. I am speaking of football Western and a few other programs are not able to keep the better up and coming players and even their coaches. Makes it tougher to compete. I do hope they can turn it around at some point it makes for a better league overall.
Let’s work to keep this on the topic of who is going to be the next head football coach at Western Guilford….Western Guilford may be ready to beat Page and Grimsley if they get the right man in there…Still curious to see who people think the front-runner is for the Hornets’ job….Western Guilford can use all of this publicity to their advantage if they market the job as one a lot of football fans are talking about….Again it is a dead period for the recruiting talk of players to high schools, but there is still plenty of room and time to be talking about who that new WG football coach is going to be…Who is the favorite, wonder who the front-runner might be???
If a coach takes this job at Western Guilford and does anything at all, it would have to help his resume….And if you go say 5-5 at Western, you should be named Coach of the Year, in your conference….
Sad to see that coach leave i thought he was decent. Andy 5-5 is not happening anytime soon i am sorry. Need multiple years and it is a total rebuild dude. I would love to see it happen soon.
How many years would it take for Western Guilford to finish a season at (5-5)??? Five years to get to (5-5)??? Or could it be done in less???
Regap Grimsley has been improving for the last 4 year’s get out your feelings only none players speak like that. Ray Charles can see the growth that’s what it’s all about. We still gonna sink the ship. Let’s here from you come pigskin season!!!
Western’s overall athletic program is on life support. The AP “academy” and other specialized programs are not bringing in athletes from out of district or keeping in-district athletes from going elsewhere.
You can debate the merit of the last few hires but the main issue is the administration for the past 8 or so years let the culture/environment go in the crapper. If you know, you know. Lack of discipline/accountability runs rampant over there, just ask someone who teaches there or has a kid that goes there. It’s really sad how much the school has dropped off. I’m afraid this is a problem at other area schools who used to have solid athletic programs.
The NCHSAA surely didn’t help them by bumping them up to 4A again….they would struggle at the 3A level but dang their conference is stacked.
Whoever takes the job, good luck to them. If they can remotely turn that program around they will be in high demand.
Andy it wouldn’t take years to go 5-5 for western. I think they have a chance to win 5 games if they were just more disciplined. Some years they actually have some pieces to work with but they beat themselves with so many penalties. I say with the right coach they could get there in the second year.
I will take three years…I think Western Guilford could get to (5-5) in three years…Get the right coaching staff in place, and place some responsibility on these kids…Challenge them and get them working again, in the right setting…
I guess it is sort of selfish, but I would have liked to have seen what WG would have done if QB Jahmier Slade would have stayed around…
Heres a good one for you Andy,
Coach Beal coached my son back in 08-09 at NWG. Funny story is he was in his early 20s right out of college and coached at Guilford Middle School. Rumor was Causey had an interview with him to be an assistant at Western Guilford. The day of the interview Causey had something come up and passed on Coach. Well the next day Beal had a interview with a new coach from Michigan named Joe Woodruff at Northwest Guilford. That year NWG finally beat Western Guilford on a last second touchdown pass 14-13. Since then I don’t think Western has beat NW since the 07 season at NWG. Also, that young coach Beal helped turn am awful NWG program around on defense lead them to 3 Piedmont Triad 4A conference Championships. He was then hired by NWG rival East Forsyth after Woodruff left and won 2 State Championships.
Crazy to think…. what if Causey would’ve hired Beal? Where would that program be today and would Beal already be the HC at Western winning?
If Beal was hired at Western and they gave him support with the coaches who knows that joker may have dang 3-4 retired NFL players as position coaches. You don’t think kids will stay to get developed and get scholarships?
They, just like Grimsley… it takes a couple kids to move in at the right time. I say about 3-5 year mark and they’re winning conference Championships and competing for States. Grimsley was falling apart before Brown revived it people. Lets quit talking like Grimsley is some Super Power. Man, you guys have a short memory…. Western Guilford could also be that way for a committed coach who is knowledgeable and knows what he’s doing. The fan base would just need to get behind him be patient and work. Things don’t happen overnight but it’s possible Black Hat Nation!
Once when I was talking with Coach Beal, he mentioned that he had met Coach Doug Henderson, and that he was really impressed with Coach Henderson…Coach Beal knows the territory, and he would make a great head coach, no matter what program he takes over…I too remember the days when NWG could not beat WG to save their lives…WG owned NWG for many years…Not sure how it all happened, but Northwest became Western Guilford…The district changed where NWG got many of the WG students, and among those were many very good athletes…Fleming Road, The Cardinal, Pleasant Ridge Road, all of that area used to be WG territory….Things and times change, but Western could still be a strong football program again….Gonna take a real true leader, to bring them up out of the ashes…
Back in the day WG had it going on….Seven wins or more for the season was the norm…The Cardinal, Lewiston Road, Fleming Road, Pleasant Ridge Road, WG used to get a lot of good football players from those neighborhoods…
Need that new proven leader at WG to bring the Glory Days…Gotta start tapping the talent in the new Hornet neighborhoods..
Yes that 4A reclassification did them no favors. Doubt they could have avoided it. Conference titles in less than five years? …….hey optimism is always a good thing.
They had a sweet rb like two or three years ago. Not sure where he ended up.
Andy if Slade stayed it would have been painfull for the kid.
Really do hope they get someone decent who stays and gets the support that is needed.
This is comical to read. WG is a hot mess of a school. It is a career killing job. Aaron Beal isn’t coaching at WG now or ever. He probably won’t be a future HC … isn’t even a teacher. Doug Henderson brought back to life would be under .500 and wouldn’t be that dumb to take the job.
They already have a coach they’re supposed to be bringing in from out of state.
I never said Grimsley is going to “be back down” I said they will be come back down to earth a bit (heck, they already did come back down to earth, this year in the playoffs) and it will level the playing field. Two different things.
Baller I agree that is a tough job for a coach to leave even a half decent spot to take. Shocked if these names that have been thrown out even look western’s way.
Baller gets it. There are much better SCHOOLS that will scoop up any potential quality candidates.
Until the administration at that school gets it together (doubtful with this current admin as they appear worse than the last) it will continue to be at the bottom of any conference in the area (3A or 4A).
Fix the school environment/culture and the athletic/band programs will benefit.
This is not the WG of even the early 2010’s….it’s sad.
The only way they get 5 wins is to manufacture a weak non-conference schedule.
Whoever gets the AD job has their work cut out for them. If it’s the former assistant AD, he has know the uphill battle.
Since when did you have to be a Teacher to coach Football? Well, that one is really simple Western Guilford. Do you want a biology professor or do you want a ball coach. I know of a few guys in this county who don’t have teaching certificates that are Head Coaches it’s all in what the school wants and is willing to work with/sacrifice. But if Western goes into this looking for the best fit in the Class room and less work for the Administration they will be hiring yet ANOTHER Head Coach in the next 2-3 years. ??
Again, WG isn’t a sinking ship. It is already sunk. They will NOT get a good coach to apply let alone take the job. Even if they magically got a great HC it would be impossible to be .500 unless the AD schedules garbage non conference teams like they did a few years ago which is the only reason they finished 5-6. They can’t win more than 1 or 2 games a year with a Forsyth and Guilford County schedule. Those are the facts. Anyone who suggests otherwise is admitting to this audience their lack of understanding. How does WG change then? First, and it is not the HC they hire or even Admin. The first thing that would need to change is WG would need to take in (as they used to) the area north of the airport. Politics will not allow that to happen though. Admin is important, but those facts can’t be ignored. WG is all apartment/transient study body. The nicer neighborhoods largely send their kids to private schools or better options within GCS. Arguably more than any other HS in the GCS system. They aren’t attending WGHS.
I mean no bad things to that but it is the toughest to build a successful school around that environment. I’m sure Doug Henderson and other good coaches from the past truly were good coaches. BUT they didn’t coach the current WG attendance zone and would argue myself they wouldn’t have success at WG if they were at WG in 2022. WG has somewhat been shafted by GCS and county politics. Those are the facts. You’re wasting time talking about future HC or Admin.
Western needs to apply for a special realignment with the NCHSAA….Morehead and McMichael were able to drop down from 3-A to 2-A…
Western needs to be in the local 3-A conference and not 4-A….WG would have a chance at wins vs. Northeast Guilford, High Point Central, Smith, Rockingham County and Eastern Guilford…That is five possible wins right there….Not all guaranteed, but possible with the correct coach and players who are willing to work to win….WG is falling behind some of the teams we mentioned, so the Western Works Program needs to start/begin soon….
Would the NCHSAA consider making special considerations for Western Guilford HS???
These are not special considerations, this is just doing the Right Thing…Western Guilford does not belong on the 4-A level….
Great topic as always Andy, and I agree 100% that Western Guilford is more suited for Conf 46 3A. Further, Dudley HS should be their respective replacement into Conf 55 4A with Ragsdale, Grimsley, Northern, NW, etc…The facts are the facts and GCS needs to take another look at this.
Spoke with Coach Beal today, by way of Twitter, and he said, “I am still the Defensive Coordinator at East Forsyth High School”….He was an assistant football coach at Guilford Middle School, right out of college, at UNC-Wilmington…..
He is still the DC…for now!! Time to bring Beal to the BLACKHATS! Andy – need you to take the AD job! You know what it takes to win BIG at WG!
Durham/Beal ‘22!!!
Can someone explain why and how WG is 4A? They have nowhere near the enrollment of their conference mates