Palisades High, Charlotte’s newest school, names its first head football coach
Nearly two years ago, Jonathan Simmons posted a challenge to himself on social media. He wrote that he would be a head coach within 18 months.
It took a bit longer for his wish to come true, but Friday morning, he was named the first head coach at Palisades High School. Palisades, nicknamed the Pumas, will open this fall in southwest Charlotte.
And Simmons, 37, said he doesn’t believe that a new school with new players and no “tradition” needs to wait to win.
“I’m up for all challenges,” Simmons said. “I’m trying to have a winning record this year. Everybody I talk to says, ‘Coach, temper your expectations.’ Well, I’m a big Nipsey Hussle fan and (the late West Coast rapper) has one of the best quotes I ever heard: ‘Don’t place your expectation of me on me.’ I try to dress nice, smell nice, drive a nice car. My girlfriend’s beautiful. I mean, I have my own standard and I’m not trying to let anyone place their standards on me.
“I expect us to be a .500 team at the minimum.”
Simmons is from Five Towns, N.Y., a community of about 50,000 people on the south shore of western Long Island. It’s 17 minutes from JFK Airport.
Simmons played high school football there and said he did more than 200 hours of community service before he moved to Charlotte with a friend to play football at Johnson C. Smith. Simmons stopped playing football in college but graduated from Smith in 2007 with a degree with physical education and sports management. And he quickly wanted to get into coaching.
In the fall of 2007, he began his career as an assistant at Charlotte’s Berry High. His coaching travels include two years at Hopewell; a year back home in New York; three years under Aaron Brand at Chambers from 2016-19; and for the past two seasons, Simmons coached at regional power Hough under Matt Jenkins.
At Hough, Simmons coached running backs, special teams and ran the Huskies’ weight room program.
“I’m so excited for him,” Jenkins said. “It’s a big loss for us. He’s an outstanding coach, a fantastic human being, and he relates well with the kids. He’s going to be a difficult person to replace.”
Simmons was at Hough, with Jenkins, when he posted that Tweet, hoping to predict his future.
“This is a dream come true,” he said of finally getting a head job. “It’s not something I’m going to take lightly. Somebody on Twitter said, ‘Give this man his flowers.’ I’m so rooted in wanting to work that I don’t want flowers. I’m ready to work. I don’t think these opportunities come around often and I don’t want to get caught up in the glamour of it all and miss out on what I’m doing. So I’m giving myself until Sunday for everybody to give me a pat on the back, but after that, man, it’s time to get to work.”
Simmons knows the job ahead will be tough. Because potential players are attending other schools, he won’t get to meet his team until June 13, though he said some of the coaches from nearby Olympic High School have given him some idea of the players he’ll be getting from that school.
There’s also the fact that Palisades’ facilities may not be open until July, meaning he’ll have to be creative with his summer workouts, including finding a place to hold them.
Simmons, though, said he has a vision and a plan, which includes quickly building a staff, some of whom are familiar with the community where the school sits.
And he knows how he wants his team to play. He’s very sure of that.
“Oh man,” he said, “we’re going to be physical. We’ll do everything with a relentless effort. I’m a big on community. Before I left high school, I did a ton of community service and I intend on trying to get something similar here in place. We’ll definitely try to be servant leaders. These young men have to learn to serve others and not necessarily make it about them.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2022 at 12:30 PM.
