Kinston hires Battle Holley as head football coach
There are certain names that are certain to grab attention in prep football circles in North Carolina. There might not be a bigger name than Holley in the Tar Heel state.
Kinston High School now has its own Holley.
On Monday, the Lenoir County School Board approved the hiring of Battle Holley. The 35-year-old is the son of former Wallace-Rose Hill football coaching legend Jack Holley, who holds the state record for most wins in a career.
After being an assistant to his father for seven years, the younger Holley recently com-pleted his first season at WRH as the head coach, where he compiled a 9-4 record. Holley led the Bulldogs to the second round of the 1AA playoffs in 2007.
“This is a coup for Kinston High School,” KHS Principal Wynn Whittington said of Holley, who will start at the school next week. “He’s ready to roll and we’re really excited.”
Holley replaces Tony Edwards, who compiled a 5-17 mark in two seasons as the KHS head coach. While Holley said he is concerned about wins and losses, he said his immediate mis-sion is taking care of students.
“My No. 1 job is to help young people — to lead and guide them in the right direction,” Holley said. “From there, I want to teach them about hard work and commitment. When they learn those things, it’ll help them later on in life.”
Before Edwards was hired two years ago, Holley had been offered the position, but turned it down. Holley said it “felt different” this time around in the interview process.
“I felt a sense of urgency from the administration that they wanted to get the program turned around,” Holley said. “That appealed to me this time because they wanted to make an immediate commitment to the program.”
KHS Athletics Director Wells Gulledge said he was also “thrilled” about the hiring of Hol-ley. Gulledge said there will be one tangible difference with Holley at the helm.
“Battle is going to bring a lot of things to our program that we feel it has been lacking, es-pecially in the strength and conditioning program,” Gulledge said. “We’re definitely going to be bigger, stronger and faster.”
Holley is the sixth head coach for Kinston since the 2002 season, but he said that trend is coming to an end.
“I’m planning on coming in here and growing some roots,” Holley said. “I’m going to give everything it takes for Kinston to have a successful program. Our trademark is that no one is going to outwork us.”
Holley said he was impressed with Kinston’s facilities and with the players he’s already met.
“There’s something special about to happen in Kinston and I want to be a part of it,” Hol-ley said.
In other coaching news, Kinston still has one more high-profile position to fill and Whit-tington said the Vikings are close to hiring a new baseball coach.
“We’ve made an offer and it’s been accepted,” Whittington said. “We are currently await-ing board approval, which should come by next Monday.”
