By Brad Greer

The North Delta School did not have to look very hard to find its next high school football coach.

Assistant coach Brandon Ciaramitaro (pronounced cim-a-tar-ro) was recently named head football coach of the Green Wave. The 25 year-old Ciaramitaro takes over the reigns from Dan Werner who accepted the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coaching position at Ole Miss.

For Ciaramitaro, or Coach ‘C” as he is called around campus, landing the job at his alma mater is a dream come true.

“It is great to be home and I would not want to coach anywhere else but here,” said Ciaramitaro, who has spent the last three seasons as North Delta’s offensive line coach.

“This is where I grew up as a person and got to play football here. I am excited about the guys we have got returning next fall and I could not ask for a better opportunity. As I was saying at our awards banquet last week, I am not going to have to teach these guys how to win football games or to teach them to play hard. They know what is expected of them and know how I want things done both on and off the field,” said Ciaramitaro.

North Delta will return eight starters on offense from last year’s 10-2 squad  that repeated as District 1AA champions and advanced to the second round of the North AA State playoffs before falling to River Oaks, La. In three seasons, the Green Wave compiled a 27-7 record and has not lost a district game since 2009.

Ciaramitaro says he is looking for big things out of his squad next fall but will not change anything up scheme wise.

“We are going to try and keep everything the same as last year. We are going to be as balanced as we can and run the football first. We have our entire backfield returning with two 1,000 yards rushers but we are still going to throw the football.”

After graduating from North Delta in 2007, Ciaramitaro played two seasons at Northeast Community College in Booneville before  moving on to Arkansas State University where he received a physical education degree in 2009.

Ciaramitaro said coaching under Werner for the past three seasons has proved there is more to coaching than X’s and O’s.

“Coach Werner is a first class guy and just being around him and learning from his experience helped me expand as a coach. His organization skills are what I was use to playing at a division one football program. So when I came here to work for him it was business as normal. But, the way he treats his staff and his players is something I would not have learned from anybody  else but him so it was a real blessing to work for him,“ said Ciaramitaro.

Assistant coach Harrison Nickle will remain on the staff but will have an expanded role next season.

“Harrison has been on the football staff a few years now and has coached five years of basketball so he has kind of been through the fire so to speak and he has earn his privilige to step up and earn his role in the program,“ said Ciaramitaro.

“His has learned so much from the game because he also worked under coach Werner for two years and I could not be more excited for him. I really do  not think you will find anybody that cares more about North Delta than Harrison and myself. He is also my best friend so I think we will have a great working relationship,“ said Ciaramtaro.