Former Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward has added a new title to his profile. Ward has been named the head coach of Booker T. Washington High School’s football team in Pensacola, Florida according to FootballScoop.com. The Pensacola New Journal was among the first to report the news.
Ward previously was the head coach of Westbury Christian School, where he was named head coach in 2007. His coaching career actually got started on the basketball court as an assistant coach with the NBA’s Houston Rockets and later at Westbury Christian School. His desire to help coach and guide young students became his calling.
“After I finished playing, I wasn’t quite sure what God had in store for me,” Ward said in a Tallahassee Magazine feature in 2012. “All I knew was coaching or sports, so I ended up getting into coaching and this opportunity where I am was presented to me after my coaching career in the NBA was over.”
Ward turned around the Westbury program, inheriting an 0-10 team and turning them in to a .500 team in just a couple of years in a state that loves its high school football, Texas. Ward’s fundraising efforts went a long way to turning things around. Now Ward gets a chance to return closer to his Florida State roots by taking over a high school football program with high expectations. Ward’s notoriety within the state of Florida is obviously a plus for the program, but his understanding of the college game should also benefit the program and athletes going through the college recruiting process.