By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Jeff Snuffer, the head coach of Western Alamance’s football team for 16 seasons, is retiring from the position after directing the Warriors to numerous conference championships.
“I knew like in September,” Snuffer said. “They say you know when it’s time to step away.”
Snuffer, 58, has been on the football staff at Western for more than three decades.
“I’ve just been blessed in so many ways,” he said. “When I took the job (as an assistant coach), I never knew I was going to be there 34 years. . . I’ve done so many things that a coach can do. It has been an awesome run.”
Snuffer’s teams compiled a 140-59-1 record with five outright conference championships and a share of another.
Though the Warriors averaged nearly nine wins per season under Snuffer, they haven’t reached that level since going 9-1 in the pandemic-reduced 2021 spring season. They advanced to the Class 3-A state semifinals that season.
Four of Snuffer’s teams compiled at least 11 victories, topped by the 14-1 record in 2017. The Warriors finished this season with a 7-4 record and three-game losing streak, including a first-round exit in the state playoffs.
Western has had only two head football coaches across a 34-season stretch with Hal Capps and Snuffer, who’ll remain at the school as a physical fitness instructor through the end of January.
As an assistant coach/offensive coordinator, Snuffer was part of a staff that took the Warriors to four consecutive state finals, including a 2007 championship. He said he’s open to coaching again.
“I still feel I have coaching in me,” he said. “I just don’t know where or how that would look. We’re a praying family and we’ll be in prayer about that and lean on our faith. God brought me to Western.”
He said recalibrating family time – and he’s now a grandfather – will be a nice option. He noted the sacrifices made by his family.
Snuffer said he’s endorsing defensive coordinator Devante Pettiford for the head coaching position. Pettiford, a former Orange head coach, finished his first season with the Warriors.
“I saw how our kids responded to him,” Snuffer said.
Snuffer said he’s appreciative of the strong support for Western’s athletics programs for the 30-plus years he has been at the school.
He said his last 16 years teaching physical fitness were most rewarding. That largely included weight training.
“We’ve helped all sports, not just football,” he said. “Athletes and nonathletes.”
While successes on game nights are worth savoring, Snuffer said he hopes his coaching imprint is most remembered for additional reasons.
“We’ve done some great things on the field, but what I’m most proud of is some of the other things,” he said. “Not just me, but all our coaches. How we’ve impacted kids in a positive way and helped make them better people. That’s the most important thing.”
He said Western’s football team might not be far from returning to a level where it makes significant postseason runs.
“The talent is there,” Snuffer said. “I’ll be pulling for the Warriors.”
It just won’t be from the sidelines on Friday nights.
“I have so many great memories,” he said. “I’m at peace with it.”
Of the seven football-playing schools in Alamance County, this marks the fourth coaching change this calendar year.
After Snuffer, Patrick Stokes of Williams in his fifth season had the second-longest stretch of current consecutive seasons as a head coach in the county. Longtime Eastern Alamance coach John Kirby returned this season as the interim coach after a season away.
The Alamance-Burlington School System has listed openings at Western for a football coach and a physical education/health teacher.
