Feb. 5, 2007

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/16624643.htm

Coach teaching dad's lessons

Johnson C. Smith head football coach Daryl McNeill says his father, Willie, a football, baseball and basketball coach at Seneca High School was his mentor. • Daryl McNeill | In his own words

as told to Staff Writer David Perlmutt As he watched Super Bowl XLI Sunday with two black head coaches, Daryl McNeill thought of his late father. Willie McNeill coached high school football, basketball and baseball in Seneca, S.C. Along the way, he showed his son the ropes of running a team. This past season, Daryl McNeill turned around a Johnson C. Smith University football program that hadn't won in 24 games, with his team winning seven and losing four.

The best thing my dad taught me: The only way to be fair to the game is to be fair to the kids. He used to say, `You can't reach for the stars, you've always got to be reaching down and pulling people up. A team can't ever be about you; you've got to build a team from the ground up.'

I was the son who was always with him, on the sidelines, in the locker room -- I was always watching. I'd tape ankles. I'd help him line the football and baseball fields. All those things I know, he taught them to me. I saw the way he treated his players, or people in Seneca. Race was never a factor.

He was real quiet; he coached by example. I think I'm the same way. The kids here will tell you that I'm as modest as they come. That I don't want to do the interviews; I want them to get the credit.

I know if he was sitting with me watching the Super Bowl, he'd be grinning. Nothing was ever a black/white issue to him, but he'd be proud that there were two black coaches in that game. It would affirm the struggle he and other black coaches have gone through.

COMING TUESDAY: Anthony Foxx

BLACK HISTORY MONTH | Showing Me the Way

Each day in February, the Observer is marking Black History Month by spotlighting Charlotte-region African Americans paying homage to those who inspired or mentored them.