By Myra Bean

Denver Wade took a roundabout way to get here, but arrive he has.

The San Francisco native has been named the defensive coordinator for the North Panola Cougar team.
He accepted the position this spring as he was finishing his coaching job in Italy.
He received his degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana where he played offensive lineman. After college, he coached for one year at Wabash before coaching in Italy January 2011 until June 2012.

As excited as North Panola principal Jamone Edwards is about Wade’s athletic background, he is more excited about his commitment to education. He will teach tenth grade English.

“He will be a great asset on the field and in the classroom,” Edwards said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge.”

Wade comes to North Panola through the Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC) sponsored by the University of Mississippi.

When Derek King accepted the head coaching job, he asked if any of those teachers had a background in football as a player and a coach, according to Wade.

“He sought me out and the administration approved me to go to North Panola,” Wade said.

Wade has not had much of an opportunity to meet all the players and work with them this summer as the first year MTC members have been teaching summer school at Holly Springs this summer which ends at 1 p.m. and then he has class until 4:30 daily.

However, he has not let that deter him from planning the defense for the Cougars.

“I have never really coached defense,” he said. “I coached defensive line in summer camps. The learning curve is steep but just football knowledge in general carries over.”

What he has seen when he does work with the team is that there is a lot of speed on the defense.

“We want to be aggressive,” Wade said. “We want to use our speed but we still want to keep people in the blocks. Our number one goal like most defenses is to stop the run. We are looking to commit to that and stick to it, make them beat us with low percentage passing plays.”

Wade will not just go in with a set plan that cannot be changed, he said.

“The defense is suited around our personnel,” he said. “I have not met the whole team yet but from what I have seen we are loaded with speed we want to utilize that. We want to get the rush with four down linemen.”

Coaching in Italy tested his coaching ability, Wade said.

“The language barrier is there, a lot of walk through, keeping it simple. Every minute is valuable because the guys show up late, a lack of discipline. It’s crazy there.”

North Panola participated in the North Alabama team camp last week and will open the season August 17 at Rosa Fort. The Cougars will host a scrimmage August 10 against Coldwater.