Lake Norman Publications

Waddell ‘itching’ to get started at West Meck



Beady Waddell’s first West Meck football team won’t officially practice until February. /YouTube

CHARLOTTE – The start to his head-coaching tenure has been anything but conventional for Beady Waddell.

The first-year West Meck football coach was hired in March, just as schools were shutting down in-person learning at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After five years as an assistant at Hunter Huss in Gastonia, Waddell has yet to meet his Hawks team for workouts, and finally got to enter the school for the start of the remote 2020-21 school year. The football season has been pushed back to a seven-game regular season starting in February.

“I’m itching to get to it, get around the kids, get to know them and share our philosophy of what a student-athlete should be,” Waddell said.

He said players can still benefit from the abbreviated schedule in a year when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools haven’t held in-person workouts since March.

“It’s a great opportunity for seniors and juniors to get some film,” Waddell said. “It’s an opportunity for younger guys to get their bodies in shape, grow up a little bit in spring. Then in the fall of 2021, we get to go where we want to go.”

CMS will allow workouts to begin for cross country and volleyball, the first two sports in the amended calendar, Sept. 14. The decision to adopt a phased approach for resumption of athletic activities included input from athletic directors and principals, the district said.

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