Myers Park football coach Scott Chadwick is leaving less than a week before the season
Myers Park football coach Scott Chadwick is stepping down, and with less than a week before prep for the spring season begins.
Chadwick, 51, told The Observer he was resigned to pursue an out-of-state opportunity, which he was not at liberty to disclose.
247 Sports reported Wednesday night that Chadwick was going to be hired as director of recruiting at the University of Maryland. Chadwick, who coached high school football in Maryland, is good friends with Terps coach Mike Locksley
“Obviously,” he said, “it’s definitely bittersweet leaving (Myers Park). I’ve had a great six years there and the school, the community and the parents and alumni have treated me and my family unbelievably well, and I’ll forever be grateful for that. I’m very proud of what we accomplished at Myers Park.”
Chadwick coached high school for 22 years, including five years at Marvin Ridge. He also coached at Greenbrier (GA) High and at two high schools in Maryland. He led Indian Head to two state championship game appearances and won the 2001 state title at Bowie High School.
When Chadwick came to Myers Park High before the 2014 season, he was the school’s third football coach hired in three seasons.
He immediately witnessed what he called a lack of discipline. He told The Observer that season that he saw players who looked at football, as he called it, a “June-to-November sport.” He saw the need to implement hard rules. In his first season, he suspended nine players during a 5-7 season.
That move helped get Chadwick’s message across that things would be different. Two months after his first season, school boosters paid for a $250,000 weight room. Chadwick began convincing players they needed to focus on football year-round.
In 2015, Myers Park was 7-6. It was the school’s first winning season since 2011 and its second winning season in 10 years
Myers Park hasn’t had a losing season since.
The Mustangs are 48-7 in the past four years, which includes an appearance in the N.C. 4AA Western Regional championship game. Chadwick’s teams were consistently nationally ranked and produced a plethora of high major recruits, including UNC quarterback Drake Maye and wide receivers Elijah Bowick (played at Virginia Tech last season), Muhsin Muhammad (Texas A&M) and Porter Rooks (N.C. State).
The Mustangs were 12-1 in the 2019 season and lost in the third round of the playoffs to Richmond Senior. The 2020 season was postponed due to the COVID pandemic. The N.C. High School Athletic Association will start the season with official practice Monday.
And Myers Park will do so without its head coach. Sources told the Observer that Mustangs assistant Mark Harman will be the interim coach.
“I think there’s this old term about leaving it better than you found it and I don’t think there’s any question this program is in much better shape than when I got there,” Chadwick said. “And I’m proud of that. I’m proud of what we’ve done to rally that community and I’m proud of the young men we produced.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 12:32 PM.
