After spending the last three seasons coaching at Oceanside Collegiate Academy in South Carolina, Coach Chad Grier is ready to make his return to North Carolina. Grier recently accepted the head coaching position at Providence Day, which also gives him the opportunity to come back home to Charlotte.
"Really excited. Excited to come home. My whole family is born and raised there," Grier explained. "We're deep rooted in that area and just very excited to get to come home."
In nine seasons as a head coach, Grier has never had a losing season and he hopes to bring that culture to an already strong football program at Providence Day.
"I think if you do a good job winning kids, winning games takes care of itself. That's kind of been the plan from the beginning," Grier said. "I think I've also been blessed to be surrounded by a lot of great people. There's no magic to it. It's just I've been blessed with good coaching staffs, a lot of great kids, great parent support and I'm really excited we can try and bring this same culture to Providence Day."
While Grier hopes to lead the Chargers to another state championship, more importantly he hopes to help his players well beyond their football careers.
"I’m proud of every kid that comes in our program and sticks it out because there's nothing that we do that's designed to be easy. We talk all the time about how it's designed to be worth it, but it's not going to be easy," Grier said. "If you're willing to buy into our culture, I'll buy you a helmet that's kind of been the philosophy. Again, when kids see that we care about them bigger than football - it's not about a season, it's about building a program, it's about investing in young people beyond football, beyond their high school career and that's what's special about this and that culture seems to work."
Just like the rest of the world Grier is feeling the impact of COVID-19, but he’s adapting to the new normal and working with his team virtually for now. However, most importantly Grier wants everyone to take care of themselves.
"I think the message is going to be for everybody is stay safe, do what we've been told to let's flatten this curve out and get through this thing as fast as we can and get this economy back to where it needs to be and then business as normal," Grier said. "Football is going to be a fun, fun season. People are going to be so excited to come out to ball games, celebrate together and work together and I can't wait. That's what keeps me going right now."