A husband, a father, and a son. What is the story of the man who said he hates talking about (and had little more than those three things to say about) himself in his own official introduction as the new head football coach?
“My wife and I met down here in Greensboro. We’re active people, we’re foodies, we like to cook, smoke food, whatever, and we’re big academic people. I like to hangout with my kid, my wife and my friends,” Wallace said.
In the world of being a football coach, nothing is more important than relationships, finding ways to make friends throughout the business. When Kevin Wallace was announced as the new head football coach on Dec. 14, 2022, it was far from his first experience with West football and the people around it. In 2017, Wallace was hired by former head coach Adrian Snow to be the offensive coordinator at West, but after only a few spring months within the program, Wallace was offered and accepted the head coach position at Northwest Guilford. The appeal to return to West was heavily rooted in the relationships Wallace formed during his first stint as a Titan.
“I’ve had a relationship with Coach Snow for a while, a lot of guys on staff and some of the other people who have been here. For the couple months I was here, it felt like the program was set up to do well with an administration that provides a lot of support for athletics,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s football history dates back to his own playing days, which ended after his time as an FCS player at La Salle University. It was during this time that Wallace realized even if he couldn’t continue as a player, he wanted football to be his life.
“I came home sophomore year of college and told my mom I wanted to coach football. It had always been a part of my life, helping out other people and helping develop young men. My mom’s a teacher, so I grew up around it,” Wallace said.
La Salle would also be the place of Wallace’s first job as a coach and marked the beginning of a period he spent bouncing around the various levels of college football, coaching from Division III all the way up to FBS. In 2015, he decided to move on from college football when he relocated to the Winston-Salem area to become the offensive coordinator at Glenn, which was then followed by his aforementioned brief time at West in 2017 before finally getting his first shot as a head coach.
Wallace’s turnaround of Northwest Guilford was a gradual build, as the Vikings improved their record year after year, ultimately culminating in a 10-3 season last year where their only losses came at the hands of teams ranked in the top six of the state. Wallace proved his coaching philosophy to be successful once, and at West he’s employing the same ideas. On the field it’s about up-tempo offense, aggressive defense and the idea that the foundation for success is in the weightroom getting “bigger, faster, stronger.” Off the field he focuses on having more accountability and communication with his players and reinforcing the four core pillars: grit, attitude, toughness and family. All of these elements are needed to achieve each of Wallace’s four standards of success he has set for his program.
“Ultimately the goal is a state championship, but the four main goals to get there are having a winning record, making state playoffs, winning the conference championship and then the state championship,” Wallace said.
Only three games into his tenure, the future of West football looks bright under Wallace. Taking the helm of a team that was coming off a 4-7 season that earned them a final ranking of No. 94 in the state, Wallace led his group to a 2-0 start with revenge victories in each of those first two games over teams who defeated the Titans last year. They went on to suffer their first defeat last week against top five ranked Weddington, but still came out of their first three weeks with a 2-1 record after facing three of the five highest ranked opponents on their schedule this season. For Wallace, he of course cares about the results but also knows that in order to keep winning the team has to keep getting better.
“We’ve seen development each week. Going week to week we want to make another step forward and be better next Friday than we were the last,” Wallace said.
West will next take the field on Friday, Sept. 15 in a big game against Mt. Tabor. It will be the opening of conference play, a matchup against the second highest ranked opponent left on this season’s schedule, and (most importantly) a home game. The theme for the game is “Toga Night” and it is the responsibility of the West Forsyth students and community to show out in support of this team and give them a true home field advantage. It will be at that sunsetting, 7 p.m. kickoff when Kevin Wallace will once again slip on the headset and try to lead his Titans to victory in this new era of West football.
