One last ride. The ‘Beadys’ of West Meck High hope final season ends with playoff berth
This is the last football season that Beady Waddell will coach Beady Waddell, and it’s a little tough for both of them to think about.
There’s Beady IV, the head football coach at West Mecklenburg High School, and there’s Beady V, the future Western Carolina Catamount and the all-conference star from arguably North Carolina’s top conference, the Queen City 3A/4A.
The Waddells have been playing and coaching together since Beady V was 7, and he’s 17 now.
That’s a lot of practices, car rides and summer camps.
And now, neither one of them can imagine what it’ll be like when it’s over.
“I think about that often,” the coach said. “I want to make sure we do it the right way, being coach and athlete, father and son. It’s been a great journey and it’s going to be a great journey. You try to cherish every practice, every car ride, every time we get to be together. I mean, next year he’ll be in college. You’ll miss his presence in the house, but you know he’s going on and being successful, so it’s a bittersweet thing.”
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‘You’re only playing because your dad is the coach’
Beady V said he’s got a lot of great memories to always fall back on.
He saw his dad win a state championship as an assistant coach at Fort Dorchester High in North Charleston, South Carolina, eight years ago. He’s able to spend time around a lot of great football minds and learn.
He’s also had to deal with some scrutiny.
“It’s been a great experience, building that relationship with him,” the son said, “not just outside of football, but inside it, too. But you’ve got to be mentally tough. Other coaches’ sons can relate to this because there are people coming at you, left and right, and saying, ‘You’re only playing because your dad’s the coach, and you’re not that good.’ But I think I was up for the challenge.”
Early in his football journey, coach Waddell didn’t push his son much, worried what other people would think, but when Beady V was 11 or 12, he began to — as his dad puts in — ‘’show flashes of him being physical and being an athlete.”
Waddell’s coaching buddies implored him to let his son explore his talents more.
“I guess he always had talent,” the elder Waddell said, “and at times, I may have held him back too much, and some of the coaches would be like, ‘Would you let him run, be free, let him be an athlete.’ I just didn’t want that stigma of he’s playing just because he’s my son.”
A burgeoning high school star
At 6-foot and 210-pounds, Beady V has become a force in Mecklenburg County high school football. A year ago, he ran 66 times for 423 yards and six touchdowns. He was third on the team with 104 tackles from his linebacker spot, trailing only graduated senior Niko Brown (104) and rising junior Mark Foster (112).
Foster and Brown played 11 games last season, two more than Waddell, who missed one with a concussion and another to rest for the playoffs.
“I think he’s the heart and soul of West Mecklenburg,” West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner said of Waddell V. “He’s like a true Iron Man football player. He plays both sides of the ball and does it very, very well. I would consider him the Swiss Army knife of the whole (Queen City) conference. I think he can do it all. I think the world of that young man.”
Mallard Creek coach Kennedy Tinsley said Waddell didn’t play when his Mavericks played West Mecklenburg. Tinsley said his team was “fortunate” he was sitting out.
“He’s been a good player in our conference for the last couple years,” Tinsley said. “He’s aggressive, physical ... and he shows up every time. And he’s a real good kid. I’ve come across him a few times. He’s a wrestler and just a good all-around football player and athlete.”
Waddell said he cried when University of Lynchburg (Virginia) coach Tim Newman offered him his first scholarship just before Christmas of last year. Since then, he’s gotten eight more, and he committed to Western Carolina on Friday. He’ll play linebacker in college.
Now, he’s focusing on his senior year and getting the Hawks back to the playoffs for a second season in a row.
“I think we’ve got a really good chance,” Waddell V said. “We’re ready to go.”
A coaches’ journey
Coach Waddell said the first Beady was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, grew up in Sanford and worked as a male nurse in a hospital at night and ran a farming business during the day. Coach Waddell said his great grandfather was a member of one of the first black families in that area to have running water, hot water and a functioning bathroom.
There’s a street named after the first Beady in Sanford, Waddell said, and that name just stuck around in the family.
There are four still living. Granddad is Beady Jr., and everybody calls him “Junior.” He was the first African American on the Lee County social services board and the second to serve on the board of education.
Coach Waddell’s father is called by everyone’s middle name, Bennitte. He’s a corporate attorney in Ohio who was a two-time all-conference high school player who walked on at North Carolina.
Coach is “LB,” or Little Beady, and then, the baby boy. He’s B5 — for the fifth Beady.
“And everybody loves football,” the coach said.
Coach Waddell was a high school star at North Charleston’s Stall and played linebacker at Tuskegee University and Charleston Southern.
One cousin, also named Bennitte Waddell, was an All-American at Tuskegee who played briefly with the MInnestoa Vikings. Another, Michael “Rabbit” Waddell, was a legendary high school player at Richmond Senior who played at UNC.
After college, Waddell IV started coaching at his high school alma mater and eventually landed at Fort Dorchester after coaches there noticed how good he was working with linebackers.
He later went to Gastonia’s Hunter Huss High and worked under an old friend, then-Huskies head coach Jamar McCoy.
Three years ago, McCoy got a job in South Carolina and Waddell found himself applying for a head job at West Mecklenburg, a school Huss used to scrimmage against each preseason.
“I saw the beautiful facilities and I saw the quaint community over here,” Waddell said. “And I saw athletes, like (current Washington Commanders receiver) Dyami Brown ... and those guys. So I applied and we hit it off immediately — me, the athletic director, the principal and assistant principal. I couldn’t get in my car (after the interview) before they called me back for a second interview.”
Waddell’s first year at West Meck was tough. The Hawks went 1-6. But in 2021, they were 6-5. Last year, they were 5-6 with a playoff berth.
And they did that, coach Waddell said, while playing a little handicapped.
A tough league and some hope
West Mecklenburg is one of two 3A schools in the Queen City conference. West Charlotte is the other. Three 4A teams in the league are almost always nationally ranked — Chambers, Hough and Mallard Creek. Mallard Creek and Chambers have won five state championships and played in eight state championship games since 2013.
“I love playing Chambers and Mallard Creek and Hough,” the coach said. “But it’s the numbers. I’m out here with 40 kids and these guys have 80, 90, 100 kids. My guys are going both ways, so by the time I get through the season, if I make the playoffs, I’m beat up Round 1.
“That’s my biggest issue. I would like to play other teams that look like me, so I can go into the playoffs healthy.”
In two years, the state high school association is likely expanding to seven classes, so Waddell and the Hawks could move into a conference of smaller teams.
But for now, it’s business as usual, and both Beadys believe the Hawks are ready to make another playoff run. It’s a season both of them feel will be memorable.
“I’m just very proud,” the coach said. “I mean, what you dream of is your son going off to play Division I football, and he accomplished his first goal and the next goal is to be successful at the landing spot. And now we’ve got this season coming up. It’s big for both of us.”
Waddell V sits inside the Hawks locker room, fiddling with a new gray jersey the team will wear this season. He said his goal is to wear those uniforms in November, when the postseason begins.
“That would be a great way for us to end this,” the son said, “me and my brothers make that playoff run and I get to do it with my dad.”
