A former Eagle and longtime successful middle school football coach has been selected to lead the varsity football program at Prince Edward County High School (PECHS).

James Ford recently stepped down as varsity head coach to take the same position at Culpeper County High School, a Virginia High School League Class 3 school.

In the search for a new leader of the Eagles, Prince Edward Athletic Director Rodney Kane was able to hire Larry White.

White, an alum of PECHS, served as the Buckingham County High School junior varsity football head coach last year, leading the Knights to the district title, but prior to that he was the football head coach at Prince Edward County Middle School from 2008-18.

“We were very lucky, I feel like, to get Larry back at Prince Edward, especially with losing Coach Ford so late in the year,” Kane said. “That’s pretty late for a football coach. I hated losing him, but I’m happy for him.”

Kane praised Ford as having been a great role model for PECHS students.

“He’ll be missed as a coach and a teacher,” he said.

Kane noted that ordinarily a new football coaching hire at this point in the year would be way behind in establishing a vision and building a program, but White has a key advantage.

“He’s coached all of our kids before,” Kane said. “Our kids know him, and I said that’s where we’re very lucky that we have somebody who already knows our kids who has won with our kids. When they were in middle school, they won the middle school championship.”

White drew praise from Kane for being a hard worker.

“The kids look up to him, and he’s already got their respect, so I’m very happy about that part of it,” Kane said.

White also has a description for the Eagles varsity head coaching job that every prospective employer appreciates hearing.

“This was my dream job,” he said.

He noted that his goal was to be a high school varsity coach, and he loved the idea of being able to continue coaching the players he taught at the lower level.

“You’ve seen all the talent that I sent over here, and I always said, ‘Well, one of these days I’m going to be there,’” he said. “And the dream came true.”

Nate Reed, who served as the starting quarterback of the varsity Eagles as a freshman last year, was the quarterback of White’s middle school team when it won the Southside Middle School Conference Championship.

White made it clear that he is not interested in predicting win-loss records in the upcoming 2019 season, but he wants his team to “be in the thick of things.”

“My vision here right now is to be competitive,” he said. “I want us to be competitive. I want us to set goals, to have goals.”

His aim right now is to teach players and get them prepared, something he developed good experience doing with the middle school program.

“In 2008, we were just starting it, so we didn’t have any games, and so we just had a lot of kids to come out, and we just taught and just had fun,” White said. “And then 2009 (was) when we started having games.”

White spoke to what he expects to be the core values of his varsity Eagles team.

“I called it H.A.R.D.,” he said. “It’s honest, accountability, ready and disciplined. We’ve got to be disciplined. Most of all we’ve got to be disciplined, not just in football but in school.”

Of White, Kane said, “He’s going to be in it for the long haul. He’s not here to build a resume and move on. He wants to build the football program at Prince Edward County High School, and I would love nothing but for him to do that.”