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WCA Names New Football Head Coach

Meet Coach Keith Herring. He’s been coaching the sport for the past 31 years at multiple different high schools including McCluer North, Hazelwood West, McCluer, and Brentwood. Along with coaching, he teaches physical education and strength and conditioning. Last season, at Brentwood where he has been coaching for the last six years, his team went 11-2. “Our team had a great season this past year, even though we didn’t make it as far as I thought we could,I was very proud of what my guys achieved.” Having 30 years of experience under Coach Herring’s belt should be exciting the WCA community has they try to get back on track with a winning season.

When meeting up with Coach a few days ago, I asked what he was most excited about from this new opportunity, “Besides coaching football at a school with such rich program history, I’m very excited to be able to live my faith out freely. At my past schools I wasn’t able to share my faith as much as I would’ve liked.” As we all know, being able to live out our faith here at WCA is a privilege, and to Coach Herring it’s a big deal given that he has been in the public school district for all 30 years of his career.

When asking former Head Coach Chris Pederson what his thoughts were on the new hire he said, “I’m really excited for him. I know that he is a great guy and a better football coach. You kind of get to know other christian coaches in the area over the years and I know that he has had a lot of success over at Brentwood.”

Coach Herring plans to run a “mad scientist creation” type of offense with the spread. It’s a high speed offense based off of running the ball. On the defensive side of the ball, he wants to run an attacking multiple front defense based out of the 3-3. There are going to be many different blitz packages being thrown out at opposing offenses. “I know that boys that are playing at the varsity level this next year, went undefeated at the JV level 2 years ago which excites me. It shows me these boys are winners and that they are dedicated.”

Coach Herring’s immediate plans are to jump right into getting to know his players and staff members. “You know I’ve already been to a few offseason lifting sessions here and got to talk to multiple guys like [juniors] Chad Briden, Justin Blakey, and Atlin Hall. These boys have already showed me how dedicated they are to the program here.”

I asked Chad what his thoughts were about the new hire, “I’ve gotten the privilege to talk to Coach Herring a few times, and to say least i am really excited about this upcoming year with him.” The plan as of right now, is for Chad to head into the starting quarterback job for the second straight year.  

Coach Herring goes by a saying from the Marines, “ We are Gonna Get in, Prepare for the Worst, and do what we do.” Coach plans to get right to work by getting to know his future players better by attending offseason programs.