The Buckingham County High School varsity football team will be led by a particularly familiar face moving forward.

The Buckingham County School Board approved Seth Wilkerson as the new head varsity football coach on the evening of Jan. 10, according to Buckingham Athletics Director Russ Gowin.

Wilkerson was an assistant on the Buckingham varsity team’s coaching staff under Head Coach Craig Gill from 2003-15. He served as the Knights’ defensive coordinator during the last 10 years of that stint.

“Seth has always been a top-quality guy and a super football coach,” Gowin said. “His defenses the last seven or eight years he coached were some of the top in the state of Virginia — just nobody wanted to face our defense. We went to the playoffs for seven straight years, and his defense was a big part of that.”

Gowin noted that several James River District championships were part of that run.

“His football background is just outstanding,” Gowin said. “His dad has been a coach for years at Appomattox before retiring. It’s just in his blood, and we were so excited about him wanting to return to the sideline, because I know he’ll do a great job. This community is just ecstatic, and they’re so glad that he’s decided to return and glad that he was selected.”

Wilkerson has 15 total years of experience coaching football. He played four years of varsity football at Appomattox County High School as a middle linebacker and a guard.

He attended Ferrum College and finished up his education at Longwood University.

Right out of college, he coached for a couple of years at Appomattox, starting as a coach at the middle school level.

This will be his first opportunity to serve as a head varsity football coach.

“When the opportunity came up for this job opening, I got really excited about getting back on the sideline again,” he said.

He described it as very humbling to step into the role held by the late Craig Gill, who died in early July 2016 after a three-year battle with cancer. During his 20 years as head coach, Gill led the Knights to a 131-83 record, six district titles and a state championship game appearance.

“Coach Gill and I, we worked together for 13 years, had a great relationship, coached football, did the weight room, coached track together, and I learned a lot from him,” Wilkerson said. “He was a good friend.”

Describing his vision for the football team moving forward, Wilkerson said, “I want to get things back to the way we were. My goal is to get back in the playoffs. And something Coach Gill told me on my first year that I always remembered — he called it the four p’s: proper preparation precedes performance. And that’s something that goes for the players and coaches, and we have to get things going and get these guys in the weight room now.”

Wilkerson described the weight-room work as the foundation that leads into the fall.

As for his approach, Wilkerson said he is more of a defensive-minded coach.

“I plan on being the defensive coordinator for right now,” he said.

Gowin noted Wilkerson teaches physical education at Buckingham County Middle School and has been teaching in the county for more than 15 years.

In terms of Wilkerson’s new duties as coach, “he is already off and running, working to get a staff together today and over the next few days and next few weeks, I guess,” Gowin said.

Wilkerson replaces Joshua Wallace, who led the Knights for the past two seasons. They went 7-13 during that stretch, including a 2-8 run in 2016 and a 5-5 run in 2017 in which they fell just short of the playoffs.