It takes “a little bit of luck and your kids have to have faith” that they can win to be successful in championship football games, says a recently retired coach who has experienced far more victories than defeats.
Charlie Newlon, who recently retired as Parklane Academy football coach after 27 seasons (the first as an assistant and 26 as head coach), reminisced about past games and former players in a speech to the McComb Rotary Club Wednesday.
At the conclusion of the program, Newlon was presented the club’s Vocational Service Award ,which goes each quarter to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the community through his vocation.
Newlon, who continues to teach at Parklane, retired from coaching in 2007 after 40 years in the profession. He coached in Florida prior to moving to McComb.
When moving here, Newlon said he thought his stay would be for a few years. “The reason I stayed in McComb was people like you,” he said, citing great support from his players, community, the Parklane board and Parklane’s veteran administrator Billy Swindle, who was a guest at the meeting.
Newlon, whose teams won five state championships and were runners-up in several others during his tenure, also talked of changes in the game.
Today’s game features more wide-open offenses than when he played and began coaching, he said, attributing this to the influence of professional football trends filtering down to high school.
Also, he said, computers and cell phones present issues coaches didn’t have to deal with several years ago.
“Kids have so much to do” and so many resources that they don’t play as many backyard and playground games as they once did, he noted, adding that neighborhood safety issues are also a factor in some places.
Sports tend to be more organized now and many players want to specialize in one sport or one facet of that sport, he noted.
But Newlon encourages young people to play as many sports as they can.
He said he has talked to numerous athletes, many of them in the professional ranks, over the years and they all agree that the most fun in sports is at the high school level.
