By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Dewan Salter should know offense. After all, at one time or another he coached quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers during his seven years of service with Hillcrest-Evergreen. In fact, the past two seasons he was the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars.
Salter will continue to work on the offensive side at his new post at W.S. Neal where he will serve as the Blue Eagles running backs coach. Salter takes over for Mitchell Turberville in that role at W.S. Neal. Turberville left the program this spring to become the head coach at Monroe Academy.
The 39-year-old Salter got a late start in the coaching ranks. A 1985 graduate of Evergreen High School, which was the school's name at that time, Salter played two seasons at East Central Junior College. He finished up his education at Auburn University at Montgomery.
Salter did not get into coaching until 1999 when he joined the Hillcrest-Evergreen staff as a volunteer assistant coach. He served in that role three seasons before he joined the Jaguars staff on a full-time basis in 2002.
Salter has had some head-to-head matchups with W.S. Neal during his stint with Hillcrest-Evergreen. The Blue Eagles and Jaguars met in the regular season as recently as 2003. Last year the schools met in a spring exhibition game and again that fall in a preseason contest.
There are some fundamentals Salter looks for with running backs.
Salter said there is a lot to learn going to a new system.
Hathcock said he is excited to have Salter join his staff.
Salter has a lot of familiarity with W.S. Neal's new residence in Class 4A Region 1.
Hathcock said it helps to bring in somebody with familiarity with the new region.