Pigskin Preview: Steve Brooks enters 1st season as Laney’s Head Coach
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY) — The newly formed Carolina Coast Conference has seven teams and three of them have brand new head coaches, but only one hired from outside the program to fill the role.
Steve Brooks takes over for Luke Little, who stepped down in May after posting a 33-21 record over five seasons.
Brooks has eight years of head coaching experience and inherits a club that has been near the top of the standings for a while.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
The new leader on the sidelines feels in order to take the Bucs to the next level, they must treat their program like it is the next level.
“We’re just running it like a small college program,” Brooks said. “Places that I’ve been, just taking lessons from those places. It’s paying off. We’re able to do things much quicker and faster here because of the things we’re doing inside the building.”
Only being hired a month and a half ago, the players have not had a lot of time to adjust to their new head coach.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
However, they believe the synergy between both sides could be felt immediately.
“The transition was definitely smooth,” senior quarterback Ryan Gallagher said. “We work really well together. Coach Brooks and the whole team, we all work well. Coach Brooks is really making sure that we all build relationships and grow as one team.”
Laney has finished second in their conference standings six times over the last 20 years, but have never managed to win it.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
While doing so would be a big deal to the athletes, they think it matters more to a different group of people.
“It wouldn’t mean as much as a personal thing,” senior running back Joquin Dingle said. “It would be more of a thing to the community. I feel like a lot of people in the community I’ve talked to think that this is the year that we should deliver on expectations and stuff. I think this is more a thing to the community.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Brooks considers Laney the biggest brand in all of high school athletics and will lead the program out of the tunnel for the first time on August 22 when they visit D.H Conley.
