Pigskin Preview: John Fuller ready to lead New Hanover into a new era
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY) — Half of Wilmington’s football teams have a new head coach for the 2025 season, but only one kept their hire in house.
John Fuller takes over for New Hanover following nearly two decades as an assistant. He now leads one of the more consistent programs around as the Wildcats have won six or more games all but three times dating back to 2006.
New Hanover has 13 seniors on the roster and the same amount of returning starters. That includes six on offense and seven on defense.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Having a familiar face at the helm helps keep the learning curve small.
“They know what it means to play at this speed on Friday nights,” Fuller said. “You don’t have to teach them a whole lot. They should already have an idea of what it takes to get what we want and to do how we want it. Right now, our most experience group is our defensive backfield. All those guys are returners. They all played varsity last year. Right behind that is probably our offensive line. We have four out of five starters back from that group last year. In terms of their experience, I’m looking forward to those guys leading us on both sides of the football.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Those position groups agree with Fuller’s assessment and want to make sure those strengths are emphasized on game days.
“Offensive line, we need to stick to our blocks,” senior guard Aron Parks said. “Kind of a little sloppy right now, but we’re going to get there. The defense, they seem fine. They’re pretty good. Just the offense we got to work on.”
The athletes are just as glad to have Fuller as their head coach as he is to have his dream job.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
“It means a lot because he was my linebackers coach last year,” senior linebacker Shane Graham said. “He’s a really good leader for us. Now that he’s the head coach, he can just lead the whole team.”
“It’s home to me,” Fuller said. “To me, it’s the best program around. The tradition speaks for itself. There’s no place else I want to be. So I’m happy to have this job.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
New Hanover has the most recent state championship for any area school, which they won in 2017. That is the Cape Fear’s only football title since 2008.
