Terrance Gary is admittedly nervous, and there’s a good reason why.
This Friday, the first-time high school head coach will lead the Seaforth football team into its first game as a varsity program against Purnell Sweat. Gary, who played football collegiately at Guilford College, knows things will take time to develop. But he’s also excited about the opportunity to coach a group of players he feels uniquely connected to.
“The players already know, all wins don’t necessarily come on the scoreboard, but the amount of effort we’re putting in during practice translating to the game,” Gary said. “We know that we’re building a foundation. The goal is always to win, but our wins are going to be about how much football we’re learning as we go, because there’s not much football experience here. It’s also about the mindset we come in with.”
Gary is no stranger to coaching in Chatham County. Before joining Seaforth ahead of the 2021-22 school year, he served the previous four seasons at Northwood as the team’s special teams coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
After Seaforth hired Gary in 2021, he helped lead the school in its first JV season in 2021. The Hawks finished the year with a 6-3 overall record, winning six of the final seven games they played.
Luckily for Gary, he returns almost every player from last year’s roster. Seaforth will run a pistol-style offense with Wing-T concepts, while they’ll line up defensively with an odd front, which can feature either a three- or five-man defensive line.
“It’s very encouraging (having so many guys back),” Gary said. “They’ve been our biggest recruiters, and they’re the biggest fans of our program, the guys that were there Day 1. I owe a lot to them for what they’ve done.”
Starting at quarterback this season for Seaforth will be sophomore Josh Brown, who also plays baseball for the Hawks. Gary said Brown has spent the offseason working with a quarterback coach to improve his arm strength and form.
At the skill positions, players expected to step up include sophomore running back Broden Jones and sophomore running back Anthony Vesce. Anchoring the offensive line will be sophomore Roger Eubanks, who also plays linebacker for the Hawks.
Seaforth does have some green players who will likely take longer to come along, but Gary said everyone who has showed up at practice this offseason has had the right attitude.
“They want to work and they want to learn,” he said. “The ones who are out here, it doesn’t take much to motivate them. We just have to show them and coach them on what it looks like to be a football player. Some of them come from other sports. Some have never played before. But they want to be coached.”
This season, Seaforth will compete in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A Conference along with Chatham Central and Jordan-Matthews, who had a combined record of 2-17 last season. The top teams in the conference are expected to be Cummings, which finished the 2021 season 9-2-1, and North Moore — which was 10-2 overall and 4-1 in league play.
Regardless of results this fall, Gary wants his players to carry themselves the right way, whether they have a future playing the game or not.
“Our thing is, we want to make them the best high school players they can be, whether they want to go to college or not,” Gary said. “If you’re playing for us, we’re going to bring the best out of you. That takes sacrifice.
Jeremy Vernon can be reached at jeremy@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @jbo_vernon.