Could you imagine if one day, while you’re out on your job as an Amazon delivery driver, delivering packages, you got a call for your new coaching job? Would you take the call and quit your job there? Well, for most and for our very own quarterback coach, Craven Knotts, this was a no-brainer.
“I was working at Amazon delivering some packages, and then I got a phone call. [from Coach Wallace] It was like, ‘Hey, you interested in coaching?’ I went, yeah, no brainer,” Knotts said.
His arrival at West could be summed up as a lucky break, but most would say it’s attributed to his commitment since he was a child. From a young age, Knotts has always had a role in coaching, whether it’s people younger than him or his friends his own age.
“Well, the neighborhood that I grew up in as a kid, I always took the other kids in the neighborhood… since I didn’t have anybody to help me with baseball because nobody played when I was growing up, in my neighborhood. So I took them, and that’s pretty much where my love for coaching started, helping kids around the neighborhood, whether it’s basketball, baseball, or football,” Knotts said.
Knotts mentioned that he would help coach baseball, mostly, but he is our quarterback coach here at West. He eventually made the transition from coaching baseball to football for different reasons. But in making that decision, he also decided to start a quarterback academy for his players.
“When I started about four years ago, the majority of my kids at the time were 10 or 11 years old. And then, you know, now they’re freshmen and sophomores in high school, so I started back then, and I actually have one of the kids here at the school now,” Knotts said.
From sticking with his players since their youth to coaching them while they’re in high school, he’s doing everything he can to coach a new generation. While early in his coaching career, Knotts wasn’t at West Forsyth, and he was actually from another Winston-Salem Forsyth County school.
“I started at RJ Reynolds High School, my own Alma mater. And then I worked my way through the school system, and now I’m at West,” Knotts said.
Coming from a different high school, the environment tends to change from the coaching scheme of things. Environments change, and so does the vibe and school spirit of where you attend, and there is no place like West Forsyth when it comes to that.
“Reynolds always will be my first home, but I have made a home here. I love the energy, the people here, the athletics; it doesn’t matter what sport it is. Everybody takes it very seriously,” Knotts said.
With Knotts coming from Reynolds, his involvement with West from its athletics to interacting with students and faculty, he’s been right at home. So, from Amazon driver to West Forsyth’s very own quarterback coach, it’s safe to say that Coach Knotts isn’t just fortunate but is a perfect addition to the Village.
