THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200537
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Reggie Garrett's going home.
Garrett, 36, who played at Cox High in the 1970s, was named the school's new head football coach Wednesday, less than three weeks before the start of preseason practice.
He replaces Gene Beck, who was 1-9 in his only year as the Falcons' head coach. Beck resigned last month to join Tallwood High's staff as an assistant coach.
Garrett has been an assistant for 11 years with three programs - Denbigh High in Newport News and Virginia Beach's Green Run and Ocean Lakes high schools.
Garrett, who played split end and tight end at Norfolk State, was linebackers coach at Ocean Lakes last season and was offensive coordinator in his 10 combined seasons at Denbigh and Green Run.
``I like to throw the ball and from what I've seen in the summer passing league, we've got kids who can throw it and catch it,'' Garrett said. ``My main thrust will be to get kids interested in football. You win with people and there aren't many people interested in football over there right now.''
Cox has had one of the most successful overall athletic programs in the state, regularly finishing among the leaders in the annual Fidelity Cup competition for overall athletic excellence.
``The very first thing I'm going to do is try to get a staff together and contact as many kids who played last year,'' Garrett said. ``Then I'm going to talk to other coaches at Cox and see if they know of any others who might want to play. We're practicing in two weeks. It's not a lot of time.''
Garrett said he already has two assistant coaches on staff: John Gammon, who was a volunteer line coach at Ocean Lakes last season, and Jim Mason, who was already at Cox. He still has three staff vacancies. by CNB