LAURINBURG — Richard Bailey saw a couple familiar faces on Tuesday night when Scotland’s football team hosted three other teams — Red Springs, West Bladen and Union Pines — for a series of 7-on-7 scrimmages.
Bailey’s squad faced off with a West Bladen team led by new head coach Jon Sherman, who was on Jack Britt’s staff during Bailey’s previous stop with the Buccaneers. The two coaches clashed multiple times in recent years when Sherman was the coach at Sandhills Athletic Conference foe Purnell Swett. But the offseason has provided Bailey with his first chance to coach against former Scotland running backs coach Lonnie Cox, who recently took over as head coach at Union Pines.
Cox, whose resume includes stints at Lumberton, Fairmont, Scotland and Southern Lee, credited Bailey for being a good mentor during his time with the Scots. With Zamir White and Syheam McQueen in his group of running backs, Cox helped lead the Scots to a state championship appearance in 2017.
“The experience that I had here with coach Bailey, coach (Keith) Wood, coach (Scott) Barbour, it was an invaluable experience,” Cox said. “It’s had a large influence on my career after I left here.”
Cox took over as offensive coordinator at Southern Lee last season after his time at Scotland. Last year the Cavs hosted a playoff game for the first time ever.
Cox then replaced Matt Quinn at Union Pines. Quinn went 11-11 in his two years with the Vikings. Union Pines finished with a 5-6 record last season, including a 2-3 mark in the Tri-County Conference.
The new head coach quickly got to work when he took the job late last month.
“We’re mainly focusing on discipline right now,” Cox said. “We’re focusing on how we stretch, how we line up, how we hang our helmets up in the lockers. If we can be a disciplined football team and do those types of little things right, it’s going to be a whole lot easier to coach scheme.”
Bailey noticed that both Cox and Sherman still run some of the sets they learned during their time on his staff.
“It’s kind of fun because I can listen to them call plays, and they were our plays,” Bailey said with a smile. “They’ve kept the lingo that they learned when they were with me, and that’s kind of cool. It’s a little bit flattering. But they both do a really good job.”
Bailey said he believes Union Pines will be “really competitive” in conference play. That’s the vision Cox has, and he knows there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“The No. 1 thing we’re focusing on right now is changing the culture, because I plan on being at Union Pines for an extended period of time.” Cox said. “In order to build a successful program you have to put a solid foundation, a good culture in place first.”
