‘Only a phone call away’: Horatio Blades resigns as Indian Land head football coach
Indian Land is in the market for a new head football coach.
After three seasons, coach Horatio Blades stepped down Tuesday, he told The Herald, to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees in special education.
“Football has done so much for me,” Blades told The Herald in a phone interview on Thursday. “I’d never want to cheat it.”
Blades, who played football at Pitt and 64 games in the NFL, was hired as the Warriors’ head coach in the summer of 2017, after serving as the defensive coordinator under longtime coach Michael Mayer. In his tenure, Blades led Indian Land to three playoff berths, including a second-round appearance in 2018.
Blades said he is taking advantage of “The Trust,” a program that awards scholarships to former NFL players to enable them to obtain degrees, according to the program’s website. Blades will be taking online classes for free.
“Being able to get that done for free was a no-brainer for me,” Blades said. “For me to take a step back from a head coaching role for a year or two, I’m willing to sacrifice it. I could’ve stayed on as the head coach at Indian Land and tried to do both, but I wouldn’t have been fair to myself, and I wouldn’t have been fair to the kids as well…
“I always told my kids at Indian Land: ‘If you’re not in it 100 percent, maybe you need to take a step back.’ And I told them, when I resigned, ‘I’m just going to be honest with you guys. I got to take a step back because there is something else that I got to get done in order for me, long term, to achieve my goals.”
Blades, 35, plans to continue teaching at Indian Land High School, and he still plans to coach “somewhere next year in some capacity.” He said he loves coaching, the Indian Land community and his kids — both the ones who wear football helmets on Friday nights and the kids he teaches in the classroom.
He said he told Indian Land principal David Shamble of his decision to resign from the head coaching job on Tuesday, and he told his players “shortly thereafter.”
“It was tough telling the players,” Blades said. “A lot of these guys I’ve known since they’ve been in middle school. A lot of these guys, I’m the only coach that they’ve known. It was tough, but I mean, like I told them, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m only a phone call away.’”
He had another message for his team: “I’m using football to better myself. I want you guys to do the same thing.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 1:50 PM.
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