“I’m extremely excited,” Philpot said. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be the head football coach at Waynesville High and I’m excited to move on and keep things going.
“Coach Burchfield deserves a lot of credit for getting this program moving in the proper direction, and he gave me the opportunity to develop as a coach. I appreciate everything he did for me and will not hesitate to go to him for advice as much as I can since he is still in the school system.”
Philpot served as associate head coach the past two seasons and was the Spartans’ offensive coordinator for all seven years of Burchfield’s regime. During that time, Waynesville won three Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division titles and made three consecutive playoff appearances from 2007-09.
“We wanted a coach that was in our school system and Brandon has been here and was the man for the job,” Waynesville athletic director Tim Gabbard said. “I think this will keep our program stable and the success that coach Burchfield built with the program will continue, hopefully.”
Philpot plans to keep the program in place that has worked for the past seven years. Defensive coordinator Chip King will step into Philpot’s previous role as associate head coach.
“Coach King will be my right hand man,” Philpot said. “We’ll do a lot of the same things that we did under coach Burchfield — the team camps, the passing leagues, all of the off-season stuff that he implemented that helped get us to this level, we’ll continue.
“If there’s one stamp on the program I want to add, it’s to get more involved with the community and work more closely with our junior high and pee wee programs so that we all work together to reach the same ultimate goal, which is to continue to win league championships but also eventually win a regional title.”
Philpot said he also hopes to work closely with the players off the field.
“We want to help all of our athletes move on and further their education, whether that’s playing college football or some other option. Our main goal is to make our players better people, good young adults that thrive in the real world.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.
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