By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Drew Hambright is halfway through the regular season of his inaugural football season as head coach at his alma mater.
He’s directing the Western Alamance team, knowing his role has changed from several years ago when he was an assistant coach.
Hambright, a 2001 graduate, is attempting to make it seem as normal as possible.
“Football is football. Coaching is coaching,” he said. “It’s just coaching.”
Hambright returned to the program after Jeff Snuffer departed from the position last November. Hambright is only the third Western football coach in 35 years.
While he played under Hal Capps and coached alongside Snuffer, the coaches all have their own traits.
Hambright’s style is still developing.
“He’s just holding people accountable more – in practice, in games,” senior linebacker Dawson Boysel said. “It’s really good.”
The players seem to have adjusted to the change.
“We have expectations and how we want to play,” senior linebacker Bryce Renner said. “It definitely has been different . . . It’s a fresh, new system.”
For Hambright, there are significant chances as well. He’s owner of Alamance Fence, so he’s not at the school full-time – though for him, he senses that type of responsibility.
“A full-time job,” he said of his company. “And this (football role) is a full-time job. . . It is what it is, got to pay the bills.”
Hambright either brought back or retained several assistant coaches who he has held connections with for years. He said that has given him a comfort level.
“A lot of former players, guys I’d coached with,” he said.
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While current Western players didn’t play under Hambright with the Warriors, many didn’t need significant introductions. Boysel said he met the coach a few years ago through church connections.
“But now I’m starting to really get to know him,” Boysel said this summer.
Western athletics director Bo Jordan said Hambright, who has a son in an area youth football program, has made the transition smooth.
“He has got the young kids bought in to his culture,” Jordan said. “He’s creating young men instead of young football players.”
Sophomore right tackle Imarion Brown said he has noticed the demands and some changes.
“Practice is high-tempo and we get more conditioning,” he said. “We got more plays that are different.”
The Warriors have produced high marks for most of three decades. Western won 70 percent of its games in 16 seasons under Snuffer.
Western (4-1), which heads into the teeth of its Mid-Carolina Conference schedule by visiting undefeated Southeast Alamance on Friday night, hasn’t won a conference championship since the pandemic-adjusted spring 2021 season. That marked the Warriors’ third unbeaten conference record in a four-year stretch.
Since then, each of the other football-playing schools in Alamance County, with the exception of Graham (which has discontinued its varsity team this year), have won at least one league title.
So while there has been sustained success, an uptick under Hambright would be welcome.
“He’s kind of changing the culture at Western,” Boysel said. “I think this change should be good for us.”
The goal is a conference championship and more.
“And see if we can get back on top again,” Renner said.
