Waldrop accepts position in North Alabama

After a decade of coaching sports at Chelsea High School, Coach Wade Waldrop is moving on to the next chapter of his life. Starting in March, Waldrop began his tenure as head football coach at James Clemens High School Madison, outside Huntsville.

Waldrop served as the head football coach and athletic director at Chelsea seven out of the 10 years he worked at the school.

The decision to move schools began in early February when James Clemens started its coach search and chose Waldrop out of more than 100 candidates.

Waldrop said choosing to leave Chelsea as a whole wasn’t the hard part. The tough part came when he began thinking of the relationships he made at Chelsea would be changing after calling the school his home for 10 years.

“My roots are deep in Chelsea, it’s bittersweet,” Waldrop said. “My family and I have benefited so much from living in this community, but we feel like this is the right move and firmly believe this is God’s plan for us.”

Waldrop said he’s always received a tremendous amount of support since he began at Chelsea and that when he announced he would be leaving, he was treated with the highest respect for his decision.

The first person Waldrop told he would be leaving was his principal, Jay Peoples. He then informed his coaching staff and held a meeting with his players.

“One thing I wanted to make sure of was that I told our players in person,” Waldrop said. “I told them in our meeting that whenever they graduate from Chelsea to represent the school and myself. I told them that as I leave, I’ll be representing them and the time we all spent together.”

James Clemens, a sister school of Bob Jones High School in Madison, opened its doors in 2012. It is a 6A football program that played only freshman and sophomore students on the team last season.

 Since Waldrop won’t be acting as both a coach and athletic director, his time at James Clemens will be entirely dedicated to maturing and preparing the young football team for next year’s 6A schedule.

Waldrop said when he worked both jobs at Chelsea, focusing solely on the football team had to be put on the backburner since he needed to make decisions for the entire athletic program at Chelsea.

He’s met with his new coaching staff and is preparing to get a head start on the 2013 season as his family waits to move to Huntsville until the end of the school year.

“I’ll be honest, the next three months are gonna be tough with my family still living in Chelsea,” Waldrop said. “I’ll be trying to get the ball rolling immediately by building new relationships with the coaches and players at James Clemens.”

The toughest part about adopting a new football program as head coach is getting coaches and players used to the new language of a new system, Waldrop said. After coaching in one community for so long, the learning curve that comes with a new offense and defense wasn’t much of a problem.

The James Clemens football team might be a young, but Waldrop is excited to coach a team that is undoubtedly mentally tough after facing a 6A football schedule in its first season.

“Our goals for the offseason and preseason are going to be growing physically stronger and educating the team by watching a lot of tape,” Waldrop said. “I harp on my players to be mentally tough, and I think they’ve already got a head start in that area.”

As Waldrop transitions to the next part of his coaching career, he reflected on his first year as head coach at Chelsea. He was put into a similarly unique position there as the football team had just moved from 4A to 5A. His experiences in that first season will hopefully carry him and his new team to success at James Clemens he said.

Waldrop said he will always cherish the memories he made at Chelsea with the administration, players and friends he made through his ten years. He plans to stay in touch and always remember the great phase of his life he spent there.

“I’m a high school coach no matter where I live. It’s my heart and my passion,” he said. “But I’m really going to miss wearing that Chelsea blue on the sidelines.”