Martinsville, Va. – The new head coach of the Martinsville Bulldogs is Joe Fielder. Fielder replaces veteran coach Bobby Martin, who headed to nearby Morehead High School in North Carolina in the offseason. Fielder is a Ferrum College grad who has served as defensive coordinator at Magna Vista for 14 seasons, but comes to the Bulldogs from Chatham High school where he was the head coach. He led the Cavaliers to a 5-5 record and their best team scoring defense in 15 years. Fielder is also credited with doubling the number of students in the program while restarted the JV team for the first time since 2019.
The Martinsville principal commented on the hire - as did Coach Fielder --in a release by the Martinsville City Public schools:
“We are excited about the wealth of knowledge and expertise Coach Fielder brings to Martinsville High School,” said MHS Principal Dr. Aji Dixon. “I look forward to Coach Fielder using his experience as a football coach to motivate and inspire our students to be the best that they can be on the field and, more importantly, in the classroom.”
It was during his time at Magna Vista that Coach Fielder said he became familiar with the Martinsville Bulldog football program.
“The community support here is great and they have high expectations of the program,” he said. “This is a place that wants to be successful and has had a lot of success in the past. There is a lot of pride here and a lot of tradition overall and I am very grateful to be given the opportunity to be a part of it.”
Fielder hopes to continue to build on the success the Bulldogs enjoyed under coach Bobby Martin. “I look forward to building on that success and working to make Martinsville a contender in the district, region, and state levels. I want to keep that pride going.”
Building relationships is an essential part of Fielder’s approach to coaching. “I enjoy working with our players and coaches and building those relationships,” he said. “I think it is important to lead our players to not just becoming good players on the field, but to become good people off it. I think football teaches a lot of valuable life lessons and seeing our players learn and grow and become great young men in society is really important to me. There is comradery in football that you really won’t find in other places.”