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Rosman native is named new SMHS football coach
By Carey Phillips
 Dale Galloway, head coach at Ashe County High School for the past five years, is the new football coach at Smoky Mountain High School.
Galloway, 36, was unanimously approved at Tuesday’s special meeting of the Jackson County Board of Education. He plans to start work here in about a month.
A native of Transylvania County, Galloway is a 1987 graduate of Rosman High School. He played for the Tigers in the 1984 state 1-A championship game.
A nationally-certified math teacher, Galloway received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from N.C. State in 1991.
Galloway was recommended by a search committee that included Principal Alex Bell and Athletic Director Mutt DeGraffenreid.
“He’s a very positive person,” Bell said. “He has great leadership skills and qualities. He always talked about the well being of the student-athlete. He also talked about coaching the coaches. He has high expectations of himself, his coaches and his players.”
“I’m excited,” DeGraffenreid said. “I think we’ve got a good man for the classroom and a real good football coach who knows his basic fundamentals well. That’s what I was looking for more than anything else. I wasn’t very concerned about the Xs and Os. He’s also a great community man.”
Galloway, who posted a 23-32 record at Ashe County, is anxious to get started in his new job.
He replaces Tim Hawkins, who compiled an 18-39 record over five seasons. The Mustangs were 1-10 each of the past two years.
“Most of the way to go there is up,” Galloway said. “You’ve got kids who have never won or don’t know how to win. You focus primarily on your work ethic. You sell kids on the payoff of the hard work and being part of the group.”
Galloway, who will teach math, will be paid $55,593, according to school finance officer David Steinbicker. The total includes $41,140 in state money. Local funds include $8,228 for two additional months pay at the state salary schedule, $5,135 for a coaching supplement and $1,090 from the county’s teaching supplement.
Being a native of Western North Carolina, Galloway said he is well aware of the rich tradition of Sylva-Webster High School football as well as the success of Smoky Mountain in the first few years after the 1988 consolidation with Cullowhee. The Mustangs have not had a home playoff game or a playoff win since 1992.
“It’s a different kind of situation from the job at Ashe County,” Galloway said. “The challenge for me and my staff was to start building a tradition here.”
He noted Ashe County was entering its fourth year following consolidation when he took over in 2001. The Huskies posted their first winning season in 2001 and made their first playoff appearance in 2003. They have been to the playoffs three straight years and were 7-4 this past season.
“He inherited a program that was on the bottom,” Degraffenreid said. “This is a man to build a program for you. He’s going to build it through kids with their interests in mind.”
Although Smoky Mountain was also formed from consolidation, it is on the same campus as Sylva-Webster, a school that won five state championships from 1963-80.
“You know what has happened there in the past,” Galloway said. “You’re not necessarily trying to top everything that has been done before, but you want to try to build on that success.”
While personnel will dictate what type of offense and defense the Mustangs utilize under Galloway, he wants to build a run-oriented attack.
“I want us to be in a situation where we throw the ball when we want to,” the coach said. “You have to be able to run the football in high school to be successful. I want us to throw the ball looking for the big play after we have established the run.”
After graduating from N.C. State, Galloway was an assistant football and basketball coach at Rosman from August 1993 through June 2000. He spent half a school year as an assistant football coach at Green Hope High in Cary in 2000 before going to Ashe County in January 2001.
“Dale will bring a lot of energy to the job,” said Jim Fox, Rosman’s head coach. “He is an excellent classroom teacher and an excellent teacher on the field. He’ll do a fine job.”
While it’s too early to know about a coaching staff, Bell said it was possible Galloway would be able to bring in one or more assistants from outside the program.
“The school board is committed to being as flexible as possible about a staff,” Bell said.
Galloway is looking forward to coming to Jackson County, and it isn’t all for football reasons.
“I’m a native of Transylvania County,” he said. “For the past couple of years, we’ve talked about moving closer to home. There were other jobs in that area, but Smoky Mountain is a position I’ve been interested in for some time. You have a great community, a rich tradition and are close to Western Carolina University.”
Galloway is married to the former Michele York, also a graduate of Rosman. They are the parents of two sons, 11-year-old Connor and 8-year-old Aidan.
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