Yellow Jackets and Griffin part ways (Part 1)

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY THE CHRONICLE

Carver High School has let go of head football coach Wayne Griffin after two and a half years on the job. He was relieved of his duties as the head wrestling coach as well. Griffin was hired in February 2020 and went 9-19 overall during his tenure as the head football coach. This season Griffin led the Yellow Jackets to a 3-8 record that ended with a 49-6 loss to North Rowan in the first round of the NCHSAA Class 1-A playoffs.

The Chronicle spoke with Griffin following his firing to get his side of the story. The Chronicle reached out to Carver High School as well, however, they declined to speak and forwarded us to WinstonSalem/Forsyth County Schools Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Brent Campbell. Campbell stated that it is county policy that they do not comment on specifics about when an employee is terminated.

This is Griffin’s account of what led to his termination as head football coach of Carver High School.

Question: When did you learn that you would be terminated as head coach of the football team?

Answer: I officially heard the news Monday [Nov. 7, 2022] at 3:15. I got called out of a class that I was teaching, to come up to the office. It was the principal of athletics and my AD (athletics director). It was a meeting that was led by the principal that’s over athletics.

Question: Did you have any idea heading into this meeting that you would be terminated?

Answer: Man, actually when I start connecting the dots, I had a gut feeling that this would be my last year. I didn’t want to realize it, because I love doing what I do. I love making a difference in kids’ lives.

This thing got started maybe like back in August. We had just got a new athletic trainer, brand new and doesn’t know anything about Carver. His first day on the job, he pulled me to the side and he was like “What’s going on with you and the assistant AD?” I was like “What do you mean?” He said, “as she was showing me around, she told me don’t worry about Coach Griffin, because this will be his last year anyway.”

Then a series of events from the inside, as I have time to sit back and reflect now, I probably should have seen this coming.

Forsyth County Schools has an academic support program. We call it the 2.0 program, to where kids gotta get three hours of tutoring every week. Let’s say for this week, if they got three hours of tutoring this week, they’d be eligible for the following week’s contest. I would not get my eligibility reports from her until Thursday and it was said we would get it on Monday. I want to say out of 10 weeks, we got it on Monday, maybe once or twice at the most.

Question: When the meeting concluded, what were your feelings, knowing you wouldn’t be coaching these young men that you have been with for the last few years?

Answer: Before I go into that, let me pull up this text message that was sent to me from the athletic principal. The message said, “Due to the sensitive nature of the conversation we just had, I am asking you that you do not share this conversation with any of the parents, community or students, until we as a leadership team are ready to make a public announcement or discussion