Northside hires its next head football coach - and his name is a familiar one

Northside has found its new head football coach and athletic director — and his name is a familiar one.

Chad Alligood, the Eagles offensive coordinator this past season, will take over as coach, the school announced Tuesday. It will be the third stint for Alligood at Northside, whose former coach Kevin Kinsler’s retired after the season.

“It is actually a dream come true,” Alligood told The Telegraph Wednesday. “Northside is a unique situation that I love. It is special. I said somebody may love Northside as much as me but they don’t love it more than me.”

Alligood said that each time he has left he has always left the program in a place where he could come back.

“I love the people of Northside. I was really diligent about making relationships with people in this community because I knew my life long dream at some point was to be the head coach at Northside,” Alligood said. “I am the luckiest man alive because I got to work for coach Conrad Nix as an assistant coach and then coach Kevin Kinsler called me back to be the OC. So I have seen how a program is supposed to be run.”

Alligood coached with Northside from 99-04 before a trio of stops at Wilkinson County, Perry and FPD.

He returned to Northside in 2010 as the offensive coordinator. He helped engineer a state championship for the Eagles in 2014 with current Georgia Tech standout Tobias Oliver at quarterback.

The Eagles went 80-11 with Alligood as the offensive coordinator. He left for Washington-Wilkes in 2017 to take over as head coach for two seasons. There he was 7-5 his first season and 3-7 in his second year.

“When I came on campus in 1999 at 25 years old. I was a 9th grade coach and it didn’t take me long to realize how special this place was,” Alligood said. “To be able to go from a 9th-grade coach to a varsity position coach to offensive coordinator now to head coach. Just a natural ladder at once place.”

Northside is coming off a disappointing 3-7 season. The Eagles missed the playoffs for the first time since 1992. Alligood said he is hopeful that he can turn it around.

“We are going to understand the tradition of Northside, understand the standard that is set here at Northside,” Alligood said. “If we build great days on top of great days then the outcomes will take care of itself during the football season.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 11:24 AM.