Stability is the key to Calhoun County football success
By David Shelton
Staff Writer
St. Matthews – Walter Wilson admits to jumping around a bit in his first 13 years as a high school coach but may have found a happy home.
Wilson is entering his fifth season as the head football coach at Calhoun County High School and has established stability in the program. That stability has enabled the Saints to be one of the top five football programs in class A and the chase for a state title will again be strong this fall.
Calhoun County is Wilson’s second head coaching job. His first was a three-year stint at Kingstree prior to moving to Calhoun County. The coach has been a part of six programs (Blackville-Hilda, Keenan, Ridge View, Eau Claire, Saluda, A.C. Flora) in South Carolina and served one season at South Carolina State.
Wilson is a 1987 graduate of Eau Claire High School and signed a scholarship with East Carolina under coach Art Baker. He ended up transferring to South Carolina State where, as a defensive lineman, he played alongside NFL great Robert Porcher.
Once the playing days were over, Wilson felt the urge to coach and has been perfecting his craft since.
“I enjoy coaching kids and being a part of their lives in a positive way,” said Wilson. “We’re doing some good things at Calhoun County and we’re preparing young men for college. I’m real pleased with the way the program is growing.”
Wilson has had the same defensive coordinator, Keith Scott, since he became a head coach eight years ago. His offensive coordinator, Dwayne Wages, has been with him for the last four years.
Charles Green coaches the offensive linemen and Ross Smith is the receivers/secondary coach. Christopher Glover assists with the secondary and Wilson recently hired Johnny Milhouse to run the strength program. He will also work with the running backs and linebackers.
“This is a good staff, a hard-working staff,” said Wilson.”We all coach the jayvee team together and we spend a lot of time together. I believe in stability and we have that here. These kids know who their coaches are going to be and that’s important in building a trusting relationship.”
As for the coming season, Wilson expects the Saints to be a contender.
“We’ve had a really good summer, done some good things in the passing leagues and camps,” said Wilson as he prepared to take his team to FCA passing camp. “We have a chance to be very competitive and we’re looking forward to getting started in August.”
