East Burke High School fifth-year head football coach Derrick Minor has resigned effective immediately, according to a press release sent out by EBHS principal Anna Moose on Thursday afternoon.
The news broke just before 3 p.m. Thursday. Moose stated in the release that assistant coach Allen Wittenberg would assume head coaching duties on an interim basis.
Minor’s decision takes place just two games into the 2024 regular season. East Burke played host to arch-rival Draughn on Friday night at EBHS’ Stadium’s Danny Williams Field. The teams also met on the JV gridiron in Valdese late Thursday.
Minor came to EB with a career record of 49-39 from the sidelines, having previously served as head coach at Princeton (2012-14), Rockingham County (2015), and Foard (2016-18), where he guided the Tigers to back-to-back winning seasons and a state playoff win, neither of which the program had accomplished over the 35 previous years.
His first EBHS team played in the COVID-abbreviated spring 2021 season and finished with a 4-3 record, producing the Burke County player of the year in running back Blane Fulbright.
But the Cavaliers are just 9-22 over the last three-plus seasons, including a record of 4-17 in the Catawba Valley 2A Conference, dropping Minor’s career coaching record to 62-64 overall. They’ve been haunted by narrow losses over that timeframe, having dropped nine single-digit contests.
Minor’s teams were also active in community outreach, winning the NCHSAA Commissioner’s Trophy for the 2023-24 school year for their efforts with food distribution to those in need. EBHS football also won the NCHSAA’s team scholar-athlete award for the 2023 fall semester by virtue of its 3.50-plus weighted team GPA.
But Minor’s coaching style was openly criticized as some outspoken fans voiced their opinions particularly last fall that the team should pass more. The Cavs have responded by passing more this year but fell to 0-2 overall after last week’s 12-7 loss at Freedom.
It’s unclear if Minor will continue in his P.E. teaching position with the school, and if so, for how long. The press release did not mention when the search for the program’s 11th all-time head coach would begin, but given the timing, it may not be anytime soon.
It’s also unclear if Minor will still serve as Cavs’ wrestling head coach this winter after he was appointed to that position this past offseason in place of former coach Mark Boyd.
Moose and EBHS athletic director Chip Watts are both in their first year in those positions at the school.
Minor did not respond to a message from The Paper seeking comment on Thursday, and Watts referred all questions to Burke County Public Schools’ public relations officer Cheryl Shuffler.
Wittenberg, who’s in his second year on the football staff at EBHS, has previous head coaching experience, including in Burke County. His lone Draughn team posted a 1-10 record in 2014 before he guided Hickory to marks of 1-10 (1-6 in conference) in 2015 and 2-9 (2-5 conf.) in 2016.