By Chatham Journal Sports Staff
Bear Creek, NC – When Derrin Little arrived to lead Chatham Central’s football program, his first workout drew six players. Four seasons later, the Bears have completed a 10-0 regular season and won a conference championship, rewarding players who endured a winless beginning and a community that kept showing up through the losses.
For Little, the distance between those moments is measured in more than victories. It includes persuading basketball players to try football, guiding young starters through injuries, learning from his own mistakes and convincing teenagers that their futures could extend beyond what they initially imagined.
In an extended interview on “Late Night Talks with Pastor Chris,” Little described a turnaround rooted in relationships, patience and a definition of success that reaches beyond Friday nights. The celebration belonged especially to players who had remained with the program when winning seemed distant.
“They had every reason in the world to quit and not continue to play,” Little said of the seniors who began with him. “But they stuck it out.”
Their persistence has helped change the conversation around Chatham Central football. A program accustomed to disappointment now enters the postseason carrying an unbeaten record, a championship and expectations that have grown alongside its confidence.
A beginning that tested the coach, too
Little’s introduction to the job offered little time for preparation. By his account, he took over about two weeks before the first game. At that first workout, the entire gathering consisted of six students, Little and another coach.
He went home questioning his decision.
“Yo, I made a mistake,” he recalled thinking.
The uncertainty was understandable. He had left an assistant coaching situation where he believed success was approaching for a head coaching opportunity with a much less predictable future. Family connections made Chatham Central familiar, but familiarity did not provide an established roster or an immediate solution.
Little’s mother had attended the school, and relatives lived in the area. Before accepting, he discussed the decision with his parents and the woman who would become his wife. He prayed about it, considered the challenge and decided to take the opportunity.
Then came the work of getting students onto the field.
The staff posted workouts on social media. Players encouraged friends to join them. Little said those efforts eventually produced a roster of 24, enough to begin establishing routines and expectations.
The team did not win a game that season. Little recalled an 0-11 finish, a difficult introduction for the freshmen who would eventually become part of his championship senior class.
He also acknowledged that inexperience affected his decisions. Trying to establish standards, he pushed that first group especially hard. Looking back, he recognizes that some choices could have been different.
The rebuilding process required development from the coach as well as the players. Little was learning the responsibilities of running a program while asking teenagers to keep investing in one that had yet to reward them with wins.
The seniors who stayed
This year’s roster includes nine seniors, Little said. Five were with him when he first took over.
Their presence gives the undefeated regular season a significance that the record alone cannot explain. They experienced the earliest workouts, the difficult practices and the losses that made each succeeding season a test of commitment.
Little said several members of that original senior core were among the handful of students at his first workout. They remained long enough to see the program move from struggling to compete to preparing for the playoffs as champions.
“I wouldn’t want it with another group,” he said.
The coach reserved similar appreciation for the people around the team. Supporters continued attending games even when Chatham Central was losing repeatedly. Parents sometimes found encouragement in improvements that did not yet appear on the scoreboard.
Little remembered hearing that the team at least looked organized. As a competitor, he wanted considerably more. Yet those comments reflected a community willing to recognize early progress and continue supporting the players.
He also credited school administrators for allowing him time to build.
In an environment where coaches can be judged quickly, Little said, sustained backing through losing seasons mattered. He called the demand for immediate results the “microwave era.”
Chatham Central’s patience gave the staff room to work through setbacks without abandoning its approach. The current seniors became the clearest beneficiaries: players who stayed through the difficult beginning now have a championship season of their own.
Finding football players on a basketball court
Some of the most consequential recruiting happened away from football.
When Little arrived, members of the current junior class were eighth graders. He said several students who would become important players had not been playing football.
Little and an assistant attended middle school basketball games to build relationships. Two students particularly interested him: the players who would become his starting quarterback and starting linebacker.
He saw competitiveness and an aggressive approach that might translate to the field. Getting them to try the sport required contact, encouragement and time.
One was Gavin Williams, who eventually started at linebacker as a freshman. The other was Brooks Albright, a point guard whose decision-making attracted the attention of a coach who had played quarterback himself.
Little believed Albright could process pressure, make choices quickly and lead teammates. Those qualities offered a foundation, even before he had extensive football experience.
Their development illustrates how Little approached a roster that needed more participants. Rather than wait for experienced football players to appear, the staff sought students with useful athletic traits and worked to teach them the game.
The commitment continued after those students joined. Neither player’s path was uninterrupted, and their early experiences would test whether their interest in football could survive disappointment.
Little’s account makes clear that building the roster was only the beginning. Keeping young players engaged through injuries and losses became another essential part of the work.
Injuries complicated the timetable
Williams broke his elbow during his freshman season, Little said. The coach worried that an athlete who also played basketball and baseball might decide football was no longer worth the risk.
Williams returned.
At quarterback, Little initially expected to build around Reed Douglas, whom he said was later playing at Lee County. An injury in the first game disrupted that plan and accelerated Albright’s introduction to the position.
Little said Albright became the full-time starter around the fourth week of his freshman season. He learned while playing, absorbing responsibilities the staff had not originally expected him to carry so soon.
The Bears won a game that year. The following season brought encouraging stretches, with Williams healthy again and Albright playing well. But another injury intervened when Albright broke a finger.
Little compared losing the quarterback to losing a driver. The interruption affected the entire operation.
Those experiences shaped his expectations entering this fall. He had hoped the previous season would produce three or four victories. For this year, he envisioned a possible 5-5 finish and a meaningful step toward consistency.
The larger breakthrough, he thought, might come the following season.
Instead, Chatham Central began winning and continued winning. By the time the Bears reached 6-0, Little and his assistants were reconsidering their timeline.
“Everything that we saw for next year, we’re just a year ahead,” he recalled telling members of the staff.
Close games put belief to work
The unbeaten record did not eliminate difficult moments.
Little said the staff expected the final three regular-season games to be the toughest stretch of the schedule. The Bears got past Bishop McGuinness, then faced a South Stokes team that pushed them to the closing seconds.
Chatham Central won that game 20-19 on Oct. 23, securing at least a share of the Greater Triad 1A/2A Conference championship. This is the program’s first conference title.
In the interview, Little remembered gathering his players during a timeout while they were trailing late.
“Man, y’all relax,” he recalled telling them. “I’ve been here before. I got you.”
The reassurance came with a request for mutual trust. He believed in the players and wanted them to believe in the call and execute their assignments.
That response reflected a message Little repeated throughout the conversation: “Winners win.”
For him, the phrase describes a responsibility to keep working when circumstances turn unfavorable. Complaining about officiating or dwelling on problems does not finish a drive or stop an opponent.
The South Stokes game gave the Bears a chance to demonstrate that response under pressure. Their undefeated season had reached a point where confidence had to survive a serious challenge.
By the end of the regular season, Little could point to repeated examples of players continuing when their backs were against the wall. The close victories mattered alongside the more comfortable ones because they required the team to respond without losing its direction.
Preparation leaves little time to celebrate
Little’s sideline presence is more animated than his measured interview manner might suggest.
He described himself as passionate and readily audible from outside the gate. Players, he acknowledged, might question why he is still demanding corrections when the Bears hold a substantial lead.
His explanation centers on preparation. He wants practices and coaching to create expectations that remain familiar when games become stressful.
“You fall to the level of your training,” he said.
That principle applies to assistants as well as players. Little believes the entire staff must be prepared for difficult decisions and high-pressure situations.
It also affects his ability to enjoy success.
The team can celebrate a victory, but Little said his own attention turns quickly toward the next challenge. Even when players have a full day to enjoy the result, his window may be closer to eight or 12 hours.
After the bus ride and the trip home, film often becomes the priority. He looks for places where the team could have performed better, even after a win.
That habit helps explain why 10-0 has not ended his concern about improvement. The record confirms what the Bears have accomplished. It does not settle what they can accomplish next.
For a coach who spent years searching for progress in losing seasons, the work of finding corrections continues through the championship celebration.
Lessons passed down through family and football
Little traces his approach to both his family and the coaches who taught him.
His father provided an example of servant leadership, he said. His mother’s coaching career showed him how to accept responsibility while directing credit toward others.
He grew up around basketball and described coaching as part of his family’s life. His younger brother also coaches.
Those experiences shaped how he views the people working beside him. Little repeatedly credited assistants for the team’s success and said hiring capable people only matters if they are allowed to contribute.
“You’re only as good as the people that are in the room with you,” he said.
His playing experience supplied another influence.
Little played quarterback at Greensboro College. Earlier coaches challenged him in ways he did not always appreciate at the time, he said, but their methods gained meaning after he assumed similar responsibilities.
He remembered disagreements with a high school coach whose standards he now understands more fully. Some practices that once frustrated him have become part of his own coaching.
The transition from player to coach also brought a lighter adjustment. During an early spring practice at Greensboro, Little began jogging toward the players’ line before realizing he was wearing a whistle.
The moment captured how quickly his role had changed. He was still close to the experience of playing, but now responsible for helping others develop.
Choosing the high school setting
Little’s career included college coaching and recruiting, youth football, high school assistant work and a preparatory program.
Each stop gave him experience with different players and responsibilities. College recruiting introduced him to coaches, schools and the work of helping athletes find opportunities.
He said the disruption surrounding COVID-19 and a staff change led him toward other coaching work. Youth football brought an opportunity to teach a talented group, while a spring season at Carver provided experience with small-school high school football.
At a preparatory program, an unexpected coaching departure put him in an interim leadership role. Later, he became offensive coordinator at Person, working under head coach Carl Smith.
Little said he expected to remain there when the Chatham Central opportunity emerged.
Across those experiences, he became increasingly interested in following students through several years of growth. He wanted to see what a freshman could become by graduation, both as a player and as a person.
That desire helped make high school coaching appealing. It offered daily contact and a longer relationship with students during years when they were forming habits and making decisions about their futures.
The Chatham Central job gave him the opportunity to pursue that work in a community with family ties. It also gave him a challenge large enough to test what he believed about development.
Classroom work changed his coaching
Little said his work inside the school has influenced what happens on the field.
Through the district’s Opportunity Culture initiative, he works in math and English classrooms, including with students who need additional academic support.
The experience reinforced a practical lesson: students do not all understand information the same way.
A coach may be comfortable teaching a technique or assignment through a familiar explanation. That does not guarantee the explanation reaches every player.
“Everybody doesn’t learn the same way,” Little said.
He described learning to set aside his preferred approach long enough to consider what a particular student needs. The question becomes how to help that person understand, rather than simply repeating an instruction.
Moving among classrooms also broadens his relationships. He works with students involved in band, theater and other activities, including those with little interest in sports.
Those connections give him a place in school life beyond the football program. They also create opportunities to work alongside teachers and understand their responsibilities more directly.
Little said some of his strongest student relationships are with young people he does not coach.
That daily contact offers another perspective on his stated purpose. Football is the activity through which many students know him, but his work includes teenagers whose goals and interests lie elsewhere.
Standards that survive a championship game
Little’s emphasis on development was tested during the regular-season finale, he said, when a usual starter sat out the first half.
He did not identify the player or explain the underlying circumstances. He described the decision as a matter of accountability.
As the game developed, some people wanted the player on the field. Little said maintaining the consequence mattered more than responding to immediate competitive pressure.
The lesson, as he explained it, concerned choices with implications beyond that night.
His views had changed during the difficult early seasons. When wins were scarce and the offense struggled, he began looking for other ways to recognize progress.
Academic improvement, greater responsibility and opportunities after graduation became measures the staff could pursue regardless of the score.
That did not erase the desire to win. It gave the program goals that remained available while competitive results were poor.
Little also noted that girls participate in the program. His description of development encompasses all the students involved.
The championship provides a visible achievement for that approach, but Little’s example from the finale shows how he wants standards to operate: consistently, including when enforcing them carries a possible competitive cost.
The support behind the head coach
Little gave particular credit to his wife, Kristen, for helping sustain him through the rebuilding years.
Their relationship stretches back to his playing days. She supported him through injuries, then through the transition into coaching and the demands of running a program.
She was part of the discussion before he accepted the Chatham Central job and part of the conversations when he questioned whether he had made the right choice.
Little said that when he speaks about what “we” have accomplished, he often includes her.
Her support extends into the details of the season. She asks about practices, discusses games and watches plays with him. The players have become part of their shared life.
“She’s a huge and integral piece to the success that we’re having now,” he said.
Little also spoke openly about faith as a foundation for his decisions. Prayer was part of accepting the job, and he returned during the interview to his belief that the work has purpose beyond immediate results.
He connected the rebuilding effort to the biblical instruction to write a vision and make it plain.
The vision existed before the record supported it. Its timetable remained uncertain. Reaching 10-0 in four seasons, he said, would once have sounded difficult to believe.
What comes after 10-0
The postseason offers another competitive test, but Little’s longest-term goals concern what happens when students leave Chatham Central.
He wants players to understand that opportunities can exist at different levels of college football. He also values continued education, military service and entering the workforce.
Some students, he said, arrived believing they could not play beyond high school. Part of his work is helping them consider possibilities and prepare to pursue them.
Success, in his view, includes students finding a productive next step whether or not football remains part of it.
That outlook does not diminish the achievement of an undefeated regular season. It places the achievement within the larger task he accepted when only six players attended his first workout.
“We’re still just chasing a bigger goal to build and establish a program,” Little said.
For the seniors who stayed, the championship already represents a transformation they helped make possible. For younger players, it creates a new standard to carry forward.
Supporters can follow postseason announcements through Chatham Central High School and hear Little’s full account in the interview. The immediate question is how far the Bears can advance. The continuing challenge is to preserve the commitment that brought them here.
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