Independence taps West Charlotte assistant Robert Williams as head football coach
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Independence hires West Charlotte defensive coordinator Robert Williams as head coach.
- Williams joins Patriots after building top defense and deep playoff runs.
- Team returns QB Jared Street: 2,317 passing yards, 19 pass and 5 rush TDs.
Robert Williams, who helped build one of the state’s top defensive teams at West Charlotte, is the new head coach at Independence High School.
Williams has coached at West Charlotte for three years, the past two as defensive coordinator, when the Lions won a state championship and reached the state semifinals. He was linebackers’ coach at West Charlotte before being promoted.
Last season, West Charlotte allowed 106 points in 13 games, playing in perhaps the toughest conference in the state, the Meck Power Six, a league that includes Independence.
In 2024, when the Lions won the 3A state title, they allowed 123 points in 15 games.
In Mint Hill, Williams will replace former Patriots’ head coach D.J. McFadden, who coached the team for five seasons. Last month, McFadden took the West Charlotte job, where he replaced Williams’ old boss, Sam Greiner.
McFadden rebuilt a Patriots’ team that was once the most feared in the Carolinas. Independence won 109 straight games in the early 2000s, a period when it also made eight straight appearances in the NCHSAA state championship game and won the title seven times in a row.
McFadden was a quarterback on two of those teams.
When he took over Independence, ahead of the 2021 season, the Patriots had posted one winning season in six years. That changed quickly.
McFadden was 47-15 and just finished his fourth straight season with double-digit wins.
Now WIlliams takes over a Patriots team that is expected to return star quarterback Jared Street, who will be a senior in the fall.
Street threw for 2,317 yards and 19 touchdowns last season, and he ran for 511 yards and five more scores.
This story was originally published February 16, 2026 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Independence taps West Charlotte assistant Robert Williams as head football coach."
