Mr. Gibson's Page

I have been in education for 29 years, I started as an Art Teacher and a Driver Ed. Teacher at New Castle High School in 1978 and stayed for two years until 1980. While I was at New Castle, I coached varsity football, I was an assistant coach and I was in charge of the receivers and defensive backs. It was a great experience because we had a very small team and we had to work very hard because we were everyone’s homecoming, the guys got pretty good at picking the queen. I also had to coach the boys JV basketball and I was the assistant to the boys varsity basketball team. It was a learning experience since I really never played basketball before, I have always been involved with wrestling. But when I got the position I had to call my old high school guidance counselor from Glenvar H.S.,Mr. Joe Davis. CoachDavis was the Head Mens Basketball Coach at Radford University. I gave him a call and he told me to come up and see him after his practice. So I did, it was fantastic, I learned so much, from the optional offense to the full diamond press. After my first year, the head coach of the varsity basketball team resigned , they had a bad year with a record of 1-19. So they made me head coach of the varsity basketball team and we had a great turn around, we had a 13-7 record, we got to defeat power houses like Parry McCluer and James River.

In 1980, I transferred to William Byrd H.S., again I got to teach Art and Driver Ed. I was an assistant football coach under Head Coach Jeff Highfill, I coached the receivers on Offense and on Defense I coached Anchor Ends and Loop Tackles of the Monster Defense. I also was the assistant coach on the Big Orange Wrestling Team, under Head Coach Barry Trent. It was really cool to coach together because we were opponents in high school, Barry wrestled for William Byrd and I wrestled for Glenvar.

I am so glad that we were at different weight classes, Barry became the AA State Champion at 132 lbs I wrestled in the 126 weight class but I did not do as well as Barry. We had the opportunity to coach the Big Orange team to the 1982 AA State Championship, we had one state champion and three runner-ups. William Byrd had the power house in the 80’s, we won the Blue Ridge championships just about every year and we won the Region III championship for four years. This was before the Grundy and Christiansburg days. I gave up football but I was still with wrestling, and I became the Boys Tennis coach. While I was tennis coach (1981-1993), my teams won over 200 matches.

In 1993, I had the opportunity to transfer to Salem High School, I became head of Art department and the head coach of the boys tennis team. I felt like I died and went to heaven, the Art department had everything, with a great budget. I always wanted to be an art teacher for the rest of my life, so my dream came true.

The tennis team were the 1994 AA State Champions and it was a fantastic first year. In 1999, I retired from the coaching position of the boys tennis team, I thought I could just relax and teach art but that was not the case, the wrestling team needed a wrestling coach, so I took over the position. I have had a blast because I was back into wrestling, it was a challenge, Salem had a lot of work to do, we had a tough team in a tough district. Also Salem needed a new coach for girls tennis, so I took over that position and I truly love coaching the girls because they are so hungry to learn and to play to their fullest potential. The City of Salem Schools really supports the academics, athletics and the arts, the students should feel very fortunate, because they have a community and a school system that gives them everything.