Willie Fox

Father/Husband/Coach/Teacher = Christian - Head Football Coach - Swansea High School

[Trace_Selfridge @Selfridge_TRACE]

Had a great time competing at 𝗖𝗹𝗲���𝘀𝗼𝗻 today and learned from some great coaches! @ClemsonFB @CJSPILLER @Coachfox50 @swanseatigersfb

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

I don’t think the average person in America understands what’s going on in schools - the level of laziness and apathy is amazing…..and scary for the future - and in a time where grades are accessible 24/7 most parents don’t seem to care….

[Orietta Rose 🇺🇲 @0riettaRose]

High school English teacher explains why he crashes out over the most frustrating thing students do:

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

Great to have you stop by Coach!

[Danny Lewis @coachdannylewis]

Next stop, Swansea! Thanks for your time today @Coachfox50 @swanseatigersfb @Swansea_Tigers 🐅

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

Yes sir!

[Dante’ Caldwell @DanteCaldwell3]

Blessed to say that I will be committing to the college of Wooster, thank you to all the people to have put me in the position to succeed and be great, I’m thankful for my family, coaches, and friends who have supported me to get here. #agtg #committed #blessed

[Mike Hoffmann @MikeHoffmann]

Luke Falk shared a Mike Leach story that stopped me cold:

Two kids. One rich. One poor.

Every training camp, Coach Leach told his team about these 2 kids.

The rich kid has two choices.

Get soft. Get entitled. Expect everything handed to him because he was handed more.

Or take the resources, the coaching, the opportunities, and compound them into something greater.

The poor kid has two choices too.

Say nobody gave him anything. Blame the world. Make his circumstances the reason he never became what he could have been.

Or outwork everyone in the room.

Luke said the locker room had both. Kids from wealth. Kids from nothing. Kids with every advantage. Kids who scraped for every inch.

Same choice for all of them.

Ownership or victimhood.
Fuel or excuse.

The rich kid can waste the head start or build on it.

The poor kid can drown in the deficit or weaponize it.

Greatness doesn't come from where you start.

It comes from which kid you choose to feed.

Credit to @coachlukefalk for continuing to share golden nuggets about Coach’s legacy

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

We’ve created a school system where the students who follow the rules get the least attention… because all the energy goes into managing the ones who don’t.

[Chris Coulter @CoulterRecruits]

Sat in a recruiting meeting once where the conversation about a kid lasted 45 seconds.

His film was good. His measurables checked every box. His grades were fine.

The position coach put his name up, two assistants said "I have heard he is a problem," and the head coach said move on.

45 seconds.

That kid never knew why the offer he expected never came. He spent his whole senior year wondering
what happened.

Coaches are not just building rosters. They are building locker rooms. Every offer is a bet on who you are as a person, not just as a player.

Act accordingly.

[De’Andre Caldwell @DreCaldwell00]

(lane 1) Ran an 11.4 100m (2nd overall) at the calhoun meet yesterday! big season coming up #sophomore #recruitme #trackandfield

[Dante’ Caldwell @DanteCaldwell3]

Blessed to receive my second offer from Eureka college. #agtg #blessed

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

Lifting weights - good for preventing injuries? - who knew! 😂😂😂

[Gerry DeFilippo @Challenger_ST]

1991 Chicago Bulls lifting on game day 😤

Back when most thought it was crazy.

The Bulls knew better: morning weights kept them strong, physical, and fresh through the long season + playoffs.

MJ & Scottie didn’t skip it.

Neither should you.

In-season lifting = non-negotiable

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

Thanks for having me @ChipSeagle !

[Coach Chip @ChipSeagle]

Our guest on episode 42 of season two is Coach Willie Fox (@Coachfox50), the head coach at Swansea HS in Swansea, SC. We talk about the Gap scheme (WT and SW), how he turned a 0-10 team into a 15-7 team over the past two seasons, and how they made the playoffs both seasons.
Spotify: https://t.co/Y5RqmvChlL

Apple: https://t.co/E8QtcGHVrX

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

It’s Time to Do Away with Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Teacher evaluations are starting to look a lot like standardized testing for students.

We built both for accountability.
We were told both would improve outcomes.
They didn’t.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation MET study showed we got better at identifying differences between teachers.

That’s it.

It didn’t lead to widespread improvement in teaching. It just gave us a more organized way to sort people.

Same thing happened with testing.

It didn’t suddenly make kids better learners. It changed behavior. Schools adjusted to the system. More focus on what’s measured. Less on what’s not.

Teacher evaluation follows that same path.

Put a rubric in place, and people start thinking about the rubric. What gets checked gets attention. Everything else fades.

Charlotte Danielson built her framework for reflection and professional conversation.

We turned it into scoring, which it was never designed to do.

Now it’s less about getting better and more about where you land.

And here is part of the problem, in education, when something doesn’t work, our instinct is to add more.

More walkthroughs.
More categories.
More data.
More forms.

We keep stacking layers on top of a system without ever stopping to ask a simple question:
Is this even the right approach?
Not “How do we improve it?”
But “Should we be doing this at all?”
Because if the foundation is off, adding more just makes it more complicated. Not better.

Now we’re talking about running that same system through AI.

Faster write-ups. Automated feedback. Cleaner reports.

Still the same system.
We built it for efficiency, not for people. So it does what it was designed to do. It standardizes. It documents. It creates consistency.

It doesn’t develop professionals.

After years of refining this—more structure, more detail, more time—we’re still not seeing the kind of improvement that justifies it.

At some point, you stop tweaking and admit the idea itself might be off.

And here’s the reality—many of the highest-performing systems in the world don’t even use a standardized teacher evaluation model like we do.

It’s time to do away with it.

Keep feedback.
Keep accountability.

Lose the system built on rubrics, checklists, and scores.

Replace it with leadership that actually helps people get better. Aspirational Conversations. Coaching. Knowing your teachers well enough to support them.

If teachers are professionals, they shouldn’t be evaluated like this.

And most people in schools already know that.

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

If I could go back to Year 1 as a head coach…

I would do these 8 things differently.

20 years. A lot of wins. Plenty of mistakes.

Here’s what I know now:

[THREAD]🧵

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

We need some help from the Lord…

[Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing]

AJ Ross: "Coach, Florida on an 18-0 run here. What more do you need from your guys to slow this down and get into their game?"

Prairie View A&M coach Byron Smith: "We need some help from the lord. They're very good..." #MarchMadness

[Davis Livingston @DavisLivingst0]

End Of Jr Year Highlights co/27 OL ⁦@swanseatigersfb⁩ ⁦@Coachfox50⁩ ⁦@LouatTheState⁩ ⁦@PrepRedzoneSC⁩

[Willie Fox @Coachfox50]

@CoachYoungblood Morning duty and lunch duty every day

[Carolinas Coaches Combine @CoachesCombines]

Congratulations to the following @swanseatigersfb players for being selected to the Carolinas Coaches Combines at Fort D S3!

See you March 29 @ 4PM!

Check email to register/more info!

@JohnsonLambe @Coachfox50 @Jamarieyej64 @Kevinsightler58

[Carolinas Coaches Combine @CoachesCombines]

Congratulations to the following @swanseatigersfb players for being selected to the Carolinas Coaches Combines at Fort D S2!

See you March 29 @ 11:45AM!

Check email to register/more info!

@JohnsonLambe @Coachfox50 @DavisLivingst0 @Gavyn_G2 @Selfridge_TRACE

[William Geddis @WilliamGeddis00]

100% COMMITTED! @Coachfox50 @swanseatigersfb @icoachfb

[Swansea High School Football @swanseatigersfb]

We are proud of William Geddis for signing with Erskine College today! We know he will do big things there! Congratulations Will! @WilliamGeddis00