By By Tim Cottrell
Northview High School has filled two gaping holes in its sports roster. Not with a linebacker or point guard, but with two new head coaches.
Shane Reid and Sid Wheatley were hired last week. Reid will serve as head coach in boys basketball, and will coach running backs and defensive backs on the Chief football team. He will also serve as an assistant baseball coach. Wheatley will manage the baseball team and will coach the offensive line and defensive secondary in football.
Both credited head football coach Cody Keene and Northview principal Gayle Weaver with their decisions to come to the area.
"I knew Coach Keene from Oglethorpe (County High School, the school he is leaving to come to Northview)," Reid said. "I knew what kind of guy he was, and I knew the situation here. He told me about the job. I came down here and met Mrs. Weaver, and Coach Day and was really impressed with the way the school and the athletic program are run. That sold me."
"Coach Keene called me about the job," said Wheatley. "I coached with him at Demopolis High School. It was a real good experience. This is a little bit bigger than where I was. I came down and met Mrs. Weaver and I thought the facilities were really nice here."
Reid comes to Northview from Oglethorpe County High School in Georgia, where he was an assistant football, basketball, and baseball coach. He served as interim head basketball coach last year after their head coach resigned. Wheatley arrives from Mize High School in Mize, Miss., where he served as head baseball coach.
Wheatley is especially proud of his time in the coaching ranks in Mississippi.
"I was at Loyd Star High School outside Brookhaven, Miss.," Wheatley said. "I was there three years and we were region champions all three years. Two of the three years we made it to the South Mississippi Semi-Finals. When I was at Union High School in Union, Miss., we won the district one year and were the runner-up the next."
While Reid believes competition is important, he also wants to instill life lessons in his players.
"I take an athlete and I try to implement lessons they can learn in life," he said. "I want them to be successful people and try to take what they learn in sports and apply it to life."
Wheatley, on the other hand, focuses on hard work and discipline with his players.
"We're definitely going to work hard," he said. "We're going to be disciplined. You've got to be disciplined if you're going to have any success. We'll take a workmanlike approach to it. You've got to be disciplined in what you do. You'll play like you practice, so I want everybody to approach the field and work hard. If you've got kids with good attitudes there's no limit to what you can do. Basically, we're going to outwork everybody else."
With the start of school less than a week away, both men are settling in and preparing for their first year on the job.
"I'm going to tell the kids the goal is to win state championships," Wheatley said. "Some years that goal might be more realistic than others. But our goal will always be to win district."
Reid, however, was simply excited in his new surroundings.
"I'm excited about school starting," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting to work. Other than that it's my first year on the job so I'll just take it one day at a time."