Wayne Bragg resigns from Holly Springs football

If Wayne Bragg knew then what he knows now, he may have never been Holly Springs’ football coach.

After one season with the Golden Hawks, leading them to a fourth-place finish in the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference and 6-6 overall record, Bragg is stepping down.

He plans to still teach at the school, but say’s he’s “hanging up the whistle” from coaching.

“This was not my intention to just come over here for one year. I was planning on maybe being here until my daughter got done with high school,” Bragg said. “I wouldn’t put (athletics director) Andy Wheeler or anybody at Holly Springs in that situation. Everybody here is great.”

Though Bragg had been a head football coach before – he started the Panther Creek program before becoming Green Hope’s athletics director for two years – the time commitment was becoming harder to balance.

His daughter, 12, is active in sports and Bragg wanted to be around more.

“Instead of spending time with everybody else’s kids, I want to start spending time with my kid, my wife,” Bragg said. “Even sometimes when I’m home during the season, you might be there physically but you’re not there mentally. You’re tired, worn-out, you’re thinking about other things.”

Bragg recently got his real estate license recently and said he will join his wife’s company. He said he still loves helping kids, which is why he will continue teaching. He wants to get involved with what’s known as “special populations” where teachers work closely with students struggling in school and to identify why.

“When I was at Panther Creek I did a lot of intervention work, one-on-one stuff with kids, so I want to get back into that,” Bragg said.

Holly Springs played its first varsity football season in 2007 and has had four football coaches. Wheeler said in an email that the search will begin immediately.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Wayne Bragg resigns from Holly Springs football."