FLOYD CO., Va. – A football coach with a legacy covering decades. His name has become synonymous with Floyd County.
An iconic, boisterous baritone voice ... Winfred Beale echoes what a true leader sounds like.
The legendary head coach recently decided to hang up his whistle after a 43-year tenure on the sidelines.
We asked him, “Why now?”
“No one particular reason sort of a plethora of things. Obviously getting into your 70s it’s kind of time. Then looking at opportunities to do something beyond football personally while I still have my mobility,” Beale said.
Fitting for Beale, who’s coaching career actually started out on a different surface.
“I was actually head track coach before I was head football coach,” he said. “Then in 1981, the then 29-year-old tackled a new challenge.”
Beale said he didn’t really know what to expect at the time.
“Any football coach will tell you that those first few years are tough. There’s no pre-training that could ever make you ready for that job.”
245 wins, district and region championships and even state runner-up bids ... just a glimpse into what was a famed career.
“The relationships are much more important than the wins. I was just overwhelmed with calls and texts from former players and former students when I did announce my retirement,” Beale said.
One of those former players turned coaches: Alex Wilkens.
Coach Beale was just somebody that I never wanted to let down.
While he had a loving family, including his mother and siblings, Wilkins had no true father figure. That’s until he met Beale.
“He had faith that I could do anything if I worked hard and I think that’s the other part of his legacy that’s so great is like he believed hard work could let you accomplish anything. Some people say it and preach but he lived that,” Wilkens said.
Not just work on the gridiron, but in the classroom as well.
“Talk about it all the time and doing what you have to do and doing it as well as you possibly can and doing it that way all the time. And if you got in trouble in his class, you’d have to write it X number of times. So a lot of cramped hands and fingers in the hallways in eighth grade hall over the years,” Wilkens said.
Helping all students was Beale’s game plan, especially considering his path through grade school.
“First through seventh grade in a totally segregated school. Then I was one of the first classes to come to Floyd County High School in 1965-66 in the desegregation era,” Beale said.
Full of grace, honor, and humility, the legendary educator and motivator may be retired. But has plans to keep on moving.
“You never know maybe somewhere down the road I’d like to maybe help someone coach or do something. I don’t want to just sit in a rocking chair or be a Monday morning quarterback,” Beale said.