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Schools

For Woodland, Better Days Are Ahead

Woodland High School recently hired Vince DiLorenzo to lead its football program. I recount my previous experience with Coach Di and those of a co-worker.

My introduction to a Vince DiLorenzo-coached team came on a Thursday night in 1989. As a sophomore lineman for the Cherokee County (AL) High Warriors, I had a great view from the sidelines watching my team get thumped 45-19 by DiLorenzo’s Gadsden Tigers.

In 1993, two years after DiLorenzo’s second state title at GHS, I began correspondent work in The Gadsden Times’ sports department. “Correspondent” may have been a fancier term than I deserved. My role was to attend the games of smaller schools and therefore get our more experienced writers out to cover larger ones such as GHS. Thus, I never met Coach Di face-to-face but became familiar with him through the respect he held in the newsroom.

So, when I was driving to work and heard Coach Di was going to be ’s next football coach I was at first stunned, then grew hopeful at what this could become.

From 2001-03 I taught at Woodland and still follow the Wildcats. I’ll make it to at least one football game a year even now, and the overarching feeling in being a Wildcat supporter, for me at least, has been … frustration. I live in a district and my wife teaches in the , so I like to see all the area schools have success in my favorite sport. At times they all recently have, save for one.

To refresh my memory and prove I wasn’t over-inflating DiLorenzo’s hiring at Woodland, I contacted my former boss at The Times, John Alred. I wasn’t sure if he would remember me or have much to say about DiLorenzo’s time at GHS. I was wrong on both counts.

“Coach Di is one of my favorite people,” Alred said. “He’s successful because he instills in his players that they are winners even if they don’t win on the field … but most of the time they win on the field.

“He’s a positive thinker. He never dwells on the negative aspects of a situation. His can-do attitude rubs off on his teams to where they hit the field knowing they’re going to win or at least give it their all.”

On staff at The Times during the ‘86 title run by a Gadsden squad that began the season 1-5, Alred and his peers caught on to an important part of DiLorenzo’s coaching style.

“That team wasn't overly talented, but believed they could win every time they put on that orange and black uniform,” he recalled. “We all joked that Coach Di had sold his soul to the devil because it seemed everything impossible became possible for that team, but it was just great coaching.

“Believe me, the people in Cartersville have picked the right man for the job,” he finished.

I agree. Speaking with Woodland's principal, Dr. Melissa Williams, Friday, she relayed a growing excitement among Wildcat supporters at a parents' meeting the night before. It bodes well that Woodland fans are going to like their introduction to Coach Di a lot more than I did.

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