Billy Lane resigns as Broughton football coach after three seasons

Billy Lane resigned as Broughton’s head football coach on Tuesday morning, ending a three-year tenure as head of the Capitals.

He will remain a teacher at the school.

Lane said though the Capitals have improved in many areas over the seasons, it wasn’t showing up on the field. After equipment and weight room upgrades and even a football alumni mentor program, the football team still wasn’t gaining traction.

Lane had coached the Caps to a 3-30 overall record, going 1-10 each year. Broughton lost 19 straight games from the second week of the 2014 season until Oct. 30 of this past year when the team beat Enloe, 34-6.

Over the last two seasons, Broughton was more competitive than the record indicated, losing nine games by 10 points or fewer.

“In some ways, I feel like the program with me as the head coach, we may have missed our window to get this thing turned,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of close losses in three years. I haven’t gone back to tell you how many of those losses were by a touchdown or less. It’s tough to sustain the momentum of the program when you have all of those close losses and all of those near misses.”

Lane said he sent an email to the players’ parents on Tuesday morning and then met with the football team at school. He said emotions were evident as he unveiled his decision.

Lane has lived in Raleigh since 1996 and attended N.C. State as a Teaching Fellow. Broughton is the only place he’s ever been an educator, teaching civics, economics and law and justice since 2000.

He was a former football assistant before his hire in March of 2013 to replace Chris Martin.

“I’ve poured everything that I had into this program the last three years,” said Lane, speaking passionately of the Broughton community in and outside of sports. “It’s was not an easy decision to step down, but I feel it was the right one in this moment.”

Lane said he compared the situation at Broughton to driving up a slippery hill when he addressed principal Stephen Mares.

“You’ve got a point where there’s plenty of traction and that’s when you have to hit the gas,” he said. “If the gas isn’t hit when you hit the traction, then you slide down the hill. Once you slide down the hill, it doesn’t matter how hard you press on the gas pedal.”

There are now three area football vacancies: Southeast Raleigh, Hillside and Broughton.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Billy Lane resigns as Broughton football coach after three seasons."