WS Chronicle

Rodney McKoy hit the ground running in his first year as the head football coach at Walkertown High School. The Wolfpack finished the season with an 8-3 record and just missed an opportunity to make the playoffs.

“I thought we exceeded my expectations, because when you take over a program, you just try to get everything in place,” said McKoy. “Once we got everything in, the wins would take care of themselves.”

McKoy had a goal for his team to have a winning season year one, but never imagined they would finish with eight victories.

“Nah, I never thought that, I am not going to say that at all,” McKoy said jokingly when asked if he expected to win eight games. “Having a winning season is important when you want to lay the groundwork for a program, so people can say ‘they are winning.’ Winning is important and people will say winning isn’t everything, but it’s better than losing.”

For McKoy to turn around the Wolfpack program so quickly was a surprise to most, but not McKoy and his staff.  

“I am not going to act like it was all me. The good Lord blessed us over at Walkertown this year,” he said.  “It’s not about me as a coach; our kids worked hard and I have a great coaching staff.”

McKoy said things started off “rocky” during summer workouts prior to the season, because the team was asked to do things they had never done before. Once the players started adjusting to the new regime, things got better.

“Eventually they started adjusting and the seniors started buying in and doing what we asked, which allowed our players and coaches to get on the same page,” he continued.

According to McKoy, many of his friends in the coaching ranks told him not to take the job at Walkertown, but McKoy’s brother insisted he did.  

“My brother told me that’s where I needed to go and as I told my principal, I don’t have any regrets and it has been a good decision,” he said. “Like I tell my kids, if you don’t want to be scheduled for everyone’s homecoming, then you work hard enough that when they do play you, they realize they picked the wrong team for homecoming.”

When it comes to changing the culture in the Walkertown program, McKoy said it does not matter what the previous coach did, but more importantly for his team to be accountable from day one.

On the field, McKoy was surprised by the play of some of his varsity players. K.J. Greer, Zion Conrad and Zack Monette were all senior leaders on the team that McKoy had high praise for, among others.

McKoy said he has a four-year plan that he expressed to the school before he was hired. He has a lot of youth coming back next season and the goal is to become stronger at the point of attack so they can play like a 3A team instead of a 2A team.

Being back in Forsyth County is a dream come true for McKoy. This has been a goal of his for quite some time. For him to take a job where no one expected him to win gives him greater satisfaction.

“I learned a long time ago, you have to be where you are supposed to be, more so where you think you should be; it’s a difference,” he went on to say. “I am supposed to be over there right now at this time in my life and I’m okay with that. We have what we need, and the good Lord is going to bless us.”

McKoy plans to increase the expectation level at Walkertown High School. He says eight victories is good, but that was not enough to make the playoffs, so that means he must be a better coach in the future. He feels once his younger players mature into leaders, that will reflect in the win column.