Helms takes reins of Rolesville football

Former Page High defensive line coach Wilson Helms confirmed Tuesday that he has left the Greensboro school and accepted the position of head football coach at Rolesville High School.

Helms is the second head coach of the young Rolesville program, which will enter its third season of varsity football this fall.

He replaces Jermaine Evans, who in May announced his decision to step down to have more time to spend with his five children.

What is the first head coaching position for Helms, 33, comes at an opportune time. The Rams will have about 30 seniors this fall coming off a 6-6 season in 2015, when the program earned its first appearance in the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs.

“It’s been agonizing waiting for the paperwork to clear and this and that to happen,” Helms said. “I just want to get out there and coach football.”

He got acquainted with the players during a visit last week and got a feel for the status of things, which he said are very much afloat thanks to the effort of the coaching staff this summer.

“They’ve had some success in the past, and I don’t want to do anything to mess that up,” he said. “Making wholesale changes, a flip like that is not going to benefit anybody. That doesn’t mean we’re going to do the same things as last year, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to get rid of the good things, either. I want to help facilitate and continue on the success they had and continue building the tradition at Rolesville High School.”

Helms is the son of Millbrook defensive coordinator Ken Helms. He was born in Athens, Georgia, and lived in several places – including Raleigh – as his father’s work shifted locations.

Location was what attracted him to the Rolesville job.

“I had been wanting to get closer to Wake County because my family is here and I wanted to make that move,” he said. “I also wanted to move up and be a head football coach one day.”

He was impressed with the way Rams athletics director Tommy Moore described the town of Rolesville over the phone. During a visit to the area, he found the community to be “a great place to be.”

“It’s a nice school, a great opportunity and I’m excited about the opportunity,” Helms said.

Helms graduated from Southeast Guilford High in 2001 and went on to play football at Wingate University, where he played fullback and tight end and finished his college career as a center.

Straight out of college, Helms made a brief stop at Jacksonville’s White Oak High before relocating to Southwest Guilford, where he was a defensive line and linebackers coach and defensive coordinator for a season before leaving in 2010. He has been at Page since midyear 2010.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Helms takes reins of Rolesville football."