Northside’s new head coach Daniel ‘Boone’ Williams speaks on future of Eagles team
Head Coach 'Boone' spoke about what he will bring to the team and what he's seen from his team going into the 2025 season
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Houston County School Board approved the hiring of Northside High School’s next football head coach, Daniel ‘Boone’ Williams, on Tuesday.
Coach Boone comes to the Eagles after six seasons leading the Langston Hughes program in Fairburn, where he took his team to three state championship games in four seasons, and won it all back in 2022.
On Wednesday, Coach Boone spoke to 41NBC’s Justin Dierkes at McConnell-Talbert Stadium, ‘The Mac’, about why he took this job and what the Northside community can expect from his tenure in Warner Robins.
“I’m super excited,” he said. “I mean, if you think about the rich tradition and history here, won right here at The Mac, Northside High School; 17 years in a row they won 10 games straight, so I want to say they are about to awaken a sleeping giant. Everybody understands what Northside can possibly be. What do they say? ‘It’s a great day to be a Northside Eagle?’ Well, I want to make that day everyday moving forward. It’s a great day to be a Northside Eagle. Big relationships and big on community, so we are going to get this thing back to where we need it to get to.”
When asked, ‘Why Northside?’, Coach Boone said a big reason for him being an Eagle today is because of one Eagle in particular who texted him every Friday this season.
“My relationship with Coach Chad Alligood,” he said “That’s kind of where it sparked. He came up to play us a couple times at Hughes, and you know, towards the later part of the season, I kind of just asked him ‘Hey, what are they going to do down there?’ I said, ‘If it ever comes open, just let me know.’ He’s a big part of the reason why I’m here.”
Alligood was the Eagles’ head coach from 2020-2022.
Just hours before his first team meeting, the new Eagles coach was asked for his initial reaction of the team he is inheriting.
“Yeah, they got a lot of athletes down here,” he aid. “They were in some games last year, and I just talked to a couple players, talked to some coaches about the things they kind of need to work on, and to win those type of ball games and win those fourth quarter games.”
Coach Boone then mentioned how young a team he has, and what methods he is going to bring to the team to instill in the players early.
“I think this team has a good group coming up down the pipe,” he said. “I think we have a chance to put them on the field early, see what we got. Let them grow up early. I think that’s the best way you breed great football players. The more experience in the reps, it helps with everything. That’s the reason for success at my previous school, because we preached speed and we preached power. So, those two things we are going to bring down to Northside so we can get this thing going.”
Coach Boone also inherits one of the biggest rivalries in the state, Warner Robins against Northside. To put this new rivalry in perspective, Boone said he can’t even stand to even look across the street from ‘The Mac’ at Warner Robins High School now.
“What’s the saying at Northside? ‘Catch a demon?’ I already kind of know,” he said. “Trust me, the phone calls I have gotten, they understand that rivalry is something else. That red is not a color they like to wear over there on Green Street.”
This coach with a state title ring wants another. Coach Boone said it’s going to take his players understanding the legacy they leave behind on the field to grasp what is at stake in the moment.
“With repetition, all things stick,” he said. “You got to make it a habit, and that’s one thing they are going to hear from me. They’re going to see it, it’s going to be all around our building. They’re going to understand what you’re playing for. That ‘N’ on the side of the helmet, I don’t think these kids understand how much tradition is behind it, but I’m going to show them. I’m going to teach them, and they’re going to learn, and they’re going to respect it a little bit more. They don’t know the tradition. They don’t know the teams that played here and filled this place up. I do. We are going to get back to that.”
Coach Boone will look to rebuild an Eagles team that saw their 2024 season end at 2-8 after losing the last eight games of the season. Northside last won a state championship in 2014 under Coach Kevin Kinsler.
