Williams coach steps down

After a coaching career that spanned five decades and yielded multiple championships, Williams football coach Sam Story announced his retirement earlier this week.

The veteran coach leaves lasting fingerprints, as well as deep roots, in the Williams football program.

“I’ve been involved with Williams since 1962,” Story said. “It’s been a big part of my life, a good part of my life.”

He said he informed his assistant coaches of his decision late last week but did not tell players until Monday afternoon.

“I was struggling with it,” Story said. “I knew I needed to make a decision.”

Story leaves the prep sidelines with a record of 237-104 in 28 years as a high school coach. He led Williams to state championships in 1985 and 1999 as well as state title game appearances in 1987 and 2005.

He guided his teams at Williams and Southern Alamance to playoff spots in 22 of his 28 years.

He also instilled a tight-knit atmosphere in the program, as evidenced by the large crowd of well-wishers that greeted the team and the coaching staff after each home game.

“It was like a family, like it should be,” Story said.

That outlook extended beyond the Williams community.

During one recent season, when both Story and Cummings coach Steve Johnson missed time due to illness, Johnson said Story called him nearly every day.

“Throw out all the coaching and the Cummings/Williams rivalry, and that was Sam Story,” Johnson said.

Story, who played in the Shrine Bowl in 1964 and served as an assistant coach in 1996, was the head coach of the North Carolina team in this season’s edition of the all-star game.

Williams athletics director Kyle Hayes said the search for Story’s replacement will begin shortly.

“It’s going to be a big difference, Sam Story set a high standard,” Hayes said. “Whoever replaces him, Sam set the bar high.”

A 1965 graduate of Williams, Story joined the Bulldogs coaching staff in 1969. A year later he took a similar post at now-defunct Gibsonville High School.

In 1971, Story became an assistant coach at Southern Alamance, where he became head coach in 1973.

“There’s always been competitiveness (between Williams and Southern Alamance),” Story said. “But I think there’s closeness too.”

In 1977, Story joined that staff at Duke, where he held various positions until coming back to Williams in the spring of 1983.

In the fall of that year, he replaced Pete Stout as the Bulldogs’ head coach. Stout won state titles in 1981 and 1982 and had a record 60-3 in his final five seasons, providing the new coach with a tough act to follow.

Making things tougher was Story’s 4-6 record in his first season.

“I saw a lot of people get carried off the field on people’s shoulders that season,” Story said. “None of them was me.”

But two years later, Story guided the Bulldogs to a 13-2 mark and a state title, helping kick of a run of 21 of 23 seasons with records of .500 or better.

His final season saw the Bulldogs finish 2-9. Story said the subpar season made his decision to retire harder.

“We were debating it,” Story said. “I just needed to make a decision and I needed to make the right one.”

Story’s teams were known for sound fundamentals as well as a strong defense and running game, though he did admit that later teams featured a more balanced offensive look.

“I think anytime you played Williams, you knew they were going to fundamentally sound and taught to do it the right way,” Eastern Alamance coach John Kirby said. “They were going to be well coached.”

He will also be remembered for his use of trick plays. He credits his knowledge of such plays to South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who was a fellow assistant at Duke, and former Georgia coach Jim Donnan, who was a teammate of Story’s at Williams.

“We always felt that as long as it was legal, it was going to get used,” Story said.

While he admits that some of his plans are unclear, though he does expect he’ll get in some traveling, he said he will continue teaching his weight training class, which usually features several Bulldogs football players, until the end of the school year.

“I’ll be getting on them, making sure they’re lifting,” Story said.