‘If anybody can be the coach Garinger needs, it’s him.’ New CMS football coach brings hope
New Garinger High School head football coach Jupiter Wilson says there is one reason he is going to a place where so few have succeeded: He truly believes he’s been called to coach there.
Wilson, 43, said: “At the end of the day, I realized, from a spiritual standpoint, ‘Jupe, you keep chasing what everybody else has been chasing and you stopped trying to change lives.’”
Wilson had actually taken a job at West Charlotte, where he was going to teach in the Lions’ physical education department and work under head coach Sam Greiner, who just led the school to its second NCHSAA state title last month.
Wilson had initially turned down the Garinger job.
“But I couldn’t get it settled in my spirit,” he said.
Wilson said he was sitting in church and thinking about a guy he knew from his home state of Virginia, Darryl Cherry, who took a job at Kempsville High in Virginia Beach when Kempsville was dealing with a 56-game losing streak.
After going 1-9 and 1-2-1 in a shortened COVID season, Cherry’s teams in Virginia have posted four straight winning seasons.
“Everybody told (Cherry) not to take the job,” Wilson said. “We ended up talking last Sunday about it. He said, ‘Jupe, I don’t know what God is telling you, but don’t be scared.’ He said he didn’t try to change the program to win games, but (he went) in there and (tried) to get kids to believe in themselves.”
Cherry’s pep talk convinced Wilson to call Greiner, his good friend, and tell him he wasn’t coming to West Charlotte.
Then he picked up the phone and told athletic director Brian Bourque he was coming to Garinger to be the Wildcats’ 15th coach in 25 years.
And Wilson knows what he’s up against.
In the past 25 years, besides all that coaching turnover, Garinger has had one winning season and 14 seasons with no wins.
The Wildcats’ current losing streak is 49 games. Garinger last won a game in October 2019.
“It’s not a quick fix,” Wilson said. “But I plan to be around to try.”
High school All-American, then a Tar Heel
Growing up in Virginia, football came easy for Wilson, a naturally big offensive lineman who was an All-American in high school and then a four-year letterman at North Carolina.
In 2003, he won the Jack Sapp award as the Tar Heels’ best all-around senior.
After college, Wilson had tryouts with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Bucs. He didn’t make the league, but gravitated toward teaching and coaching while playing a few years in the Arena League in Charlotte.
He landed a pair of assistant jobs at Monroe High School and Chambers before getting his first head coaching job at his alma mater, Hickory High School in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Wilson coached at Hickory for seven seasons before coming back to North Carolina. He was Greiner’s chief assistant at Hickory Ridge for one year and was promoted after Greiner left before the 2019 season.
Wilson coached at Hickory Ridge for six seasons, briefly turning the Ragin’ Bulls into a regional power. In 2021, he was a finalist for the NFL High School coach of the year.
But in the past two years, Hickory Ridge won three games. It was 0-11 last season.
‘We need good people’
Still, Bourque knew Wilson’s Hickory Ridge teams made the playoffs five times in six years. And he thought enough of Wilson’s resume and story that he wanted him to be the guy to help bring Garinger some respectability.
Bourque said, “Going into this, I had an idea of what we needed for the program to stabilize itself. He comes with a lot of experience, (13) years as a head coach and he’s been successful and he knows CMS. I think he’s a servant leader and he’s really going to be good at building relationships and being able to pull in the community, students and staff.”
Most of all, Bourque believes Wilson will bring stability to a school that’s burned through so many coaches, year after year.
“We need good people that care about kids,” Bourque said. “People that have the patience and are ready to put 10 toes in and get to work at turning this thing around. These kids haven’t had a consistent coach. They need someone who is going to stay with them three or four years and get kids academically eligible and create an environment kids can thrive in.”
Aaron Brand, who has coached at multiple CMS schools, likes the fit.
“He can really get in touch with the kids. He can still speak their language,” said Brand, who led Irmo (SC) to the Division II 5A state championship game last season and led Chambers to the 2018 N.C. 4AA state finals. “He is still all about helping kids. He’ll be in it for the right reasons.”
Brand always believed that a good coach, with good coaches around him, could win at Garinger. Maybe not 10 games, but four or five.
He said Garinger just needs a start.
“They’ve got to get their numbers up to where they have 35 or 40 players and keep them all year, and that place can turn around,” Brand said. “I always thought if we took the job at Garinger, we win at least five games. I still believe that. And I think (Wilson) can do as well as anybody there, especially if he builds a good staff.”
Hit the ground running
Brand believes non-conference scheduling can help, if Wilson can set up games with schools where his team can have a chance to build early confidence.
And like Brand, West Charlotte’s Greiner thinks Wilson could be the guy who ends Garinger’s long cycle of futility.
“I don’t think there’s anybody better for the job, though I wish he would’ve come with us,” Greiner said. “I think he’s great at what he does. I am worried that it’s such a tall task. It won’t happen overnight. It could be three years before you see the results, but if anyone can get it done, if anyone can be the coach Garinger needs, it’s someone like Jupiter Wilson to get them over the hump. And it’s not just the Xs and Os.
“He’s just a great man.”
Wilson said he’ll start working at the school full-time later this month. He said he plans to “hit the ground running.”
Bourque, the Garinger athletic director, told him they have a blank canvas to work with and can build the program any way they want.
As his friend from Virginia urged him, Wilson said he won’t be afraid to do it his way.
“I’m going to make it better,” Wilson said. “What I told (Bourque), when they asked me if I plan on staying, I said, ‘I’ve been at this high school coaching for 18 years.’ The only place I’ve been at less than four years was when I was with (2024 N.C. 2A state champion) Johnny Sowell at Monroe, and he told me, ‘Jupe, you’re going to be a head coach, and you better leave me.’
“So I told (Bourque), ‘If you give me this job, I’ll be all in, and just by being there and being consistent, things will change.’
“And that’s what I plan to do.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
