Parris Baxter, who was the head football coach at Northeast Guilford High School last season, will be the head coach for the Smith Golden Eagles, this upcoming high school football season…Smith head coach Montis Lash(2024), stepped down as the head man at Smith, and he is looking at other opportunities outside of the Guilford County area…
Coach Baxter was previously an assistant coach at Smith, so he knows the territory, on on the Southside, there at Ben L. Smith HS, on South Holden Road…In 2024, while he was the head coach at Northeast Guilford HS, Coach Baxter and his NEG Rams were (6-5) overall, and they made the NCHSAA Playoffs, after going (5-2) in the Mid-State 3-A Conference…Without looking back, got to believe that NEG beat all of their Mid-State foes, with the exception of Dudley and Eastern Guilford….Not a real strong conference, the Mid-State 3-A football group, in recent years, other than Dudley and EG at the top of the heap…
Smith has not really been relevant in football since back when they won their conference championship in 2010, and that was the year Coach Rodney Brewington led them to the top of the Metro 4-A Conference standings….Smith was at (10-2) that season, and they were really good, with QB Jeff Simms, TE Eric Ebron, RB Elijah Jordan, and many other outstanding Golden Eagles, who were battling like wild dogs, as they won their way to the top, in Guilford County…Smith lost that year to the High Point Central Bison, in Round Two of the NCHSAA Playoffs…
Ben L. Smith was also very competitive in football on a regular basis, back when Tony McKee was coaching the Golden Eagles, and that time-frame would take us back to the late 1990s and early 2000s…
Smith still searching and the coaching searches have been frequent over the years, since the days of Coach McKee, and Coach Brewington…Parris Baxter, will the latest coach to give the wheel a spin, as he looks to get the Smith Golden Eagles, back on track…Coach Baxter has extensive high school and college coaching experience…
Not sure what all Smith has coming back for the 2025 campaign, but would have to think that Coach Baxter will have the available Golden Eagles working hard in the off-season, and in the preseason, leading up to the regular season…I really enjoyed being on the trail, following Smith back in the days of Coach McKee, and Coach Brewington, but there seems like there has been some sort of missing parts, that has led Smith to be non-connected since the days of those two coaches….Those guys were very receptive and appreciative of the coverage were were sending their way, back in those days, but since back then, Smith seems to has lost their way, and they have not been connected and have not shown an openness to any outside interest in the football program….
You have to like the way head coach Derrick Partee, assistant coach Clarence Waddell, assistant coach Brent Hinson, and the other Smith assistant basketball coaches have done their work at Smith, and the results are highly visible…The blueprint Coach Partee used to reach and win the 3-A NCHSAA State Basketball Title, should be shared with other coaches in the Smith program…Smith coaches should reach out to the basketball coaches and see if they have any tips that might be transferable and conducive for the football field…You never know…Smith Athletic Director Chris Lassiter won, I think both boys and girls Track and Field titles while coaching at Smith, so hey, why not pick his brain too…If you have the available resources, why not use them…Might be some good ideas floating around that could come in handy for the other sports programs at Ben L. Smith High School…I would be certain that back when Rodney Brewington was able to lead the Smith Golden Eagles to that Conference Championship, and that (10-2) record, that there were plenty of people coming up to him, and asking him, “How’d you do it?”…..
So just some rambling thoughts for you, and my theory always has been, “If you want to win, you must tap all available productive resources”…..And another saying I have, and I like, is this one…”I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I came here to win this/these game(s)”…..Sort of saying, not sure about the rest of you, but we/I came here to WIN….
Good Luck to Coach Baxter, and I interviewed him during the preseason last year in 2024, and he also sent me over three of his NEG Rams for our Football in Focus Show, back last Fall…I like that part of him already….Back when Coach Brewington and his Golden Eagles were winning, and Eric Ebron was one of the ringleaders that was wanting it bad, Coach Brewington, Ebron, and the other Golden Eagles were saying if we keep winning, you got to get us on that show, and we did, numerous times…I was all over the surging Smith Golden Eagles football program, back at the time….
Time to put a close on our current ramblings, but I have been hearing about several off-season football transfers by local players in our Guilford County high schools…I guess it will all become official on August 1st, but hearing the rich are getting richer, and some teams are losing top talents….More to come later on…August 1st used to the most important day on every high school football players calendar in Guilford County, and if you didn’t have a calendar handy, you just sat back and counted down the days, till August 1st, and that was always the first official day of your high school football practice….
More on the table, and the as they say at my church during the Lord’s Supper participation, “The Table Has Been Set, Come and Partake”….
Got some of the opening info for this post from the News and Record, with Bryant Roche, from back on Sunday, May 11…I would not have known about the move of Parris Baxter to Smith, if not for the BR coverage, and that is BR/Bryant Roche, and not BS, as in maybe Brian Smith…
That is all we have for now, and all of us need to go and run a 40…Much better to run a 40, than drink one of those 40s….Those days better be LOOOOOONG GONE for all us….Much better to be driving down I-40, than to be downing a COLT 45…Lots of references, and let’s stick to script right…Well I thought this was the script, so I will say Good Evening to all…