Sit down with Greg Simmons for more than a few minutes, and it won’t take long to figure out what the first-year North Moore head football coach is all about.

Over and over again, the conversation comes back to a central theme — doing things the right way.

Considering where Simmons comes from, that should come as no surprise. He hails from a program (Northwest Guilford) that resides in one of the centers of North Carolina’s high school football world (Greensboro). There, football is a year-round affair, where the work stops only for a few weeks following the end of the season.

“It’s just like real life,” he said. “You get your vacation days, and then you’ve got to go 100 percent the rest of the time. I think that’s the mentality of the really good programs is that they never stop working.”

That type of program has worked at Class 4A Northwest Guilford, where Simmons served as defensive coordinator the last four years. The Vikings improved from 1-10 in 2006 to back-to-back state playoff appearances in 2008 and 2009.

Simmons is hoping for a similar turnaround at North Moore, where the Class 1A Mustangs are coming off back-to-back one-win seasons. Although the landscape at North Moore is much different, he plans to keep the formula for success the same.

“I think slowly you’re going to see more and more people want to be a part of this program, because we’re going to do things the right way,” he said.

Seeing as how the different sports at North Moore share athletes from season to season, he’d like to see the football program’s hard work result in a boom for the school’s overall athletic program. In turn, he hopes that would entice the community to become even more involved, not only in football, but in North Moore in general.

“I’m wanting to get the community more involved, and they’re not going to want to be involved unless it’s with good kids who are doing the right thing,” he said.

To accomplish those goals in the short term, he needs numbers. Right now, he’s depending on current players to buy into his program and convince others to do the same.

In the long term, he’s depending on the kind of program he’s installing to sustain itself.

“Everybody wants to be part of something they can be proud of,” he said. “If we’re doing things in a positive way and we’re doing positive things, more people are going to want to be a part of it.

“I think it’s going to be a process, I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight, and I’m not expecting Aug. 2 for there to be 100 kids out there. But I think the biggest thing we can accomplish in this short amount of time is, we can get kids acting right, doing right and being the type of young men out in the community that we can be proud of.”

Simmons will hold his first mini-camp for rising ninth- through 12th-graders who want to play football June 21-23 from 5 to 8 p.m. each day.

An Asheboro resident and Harding University graduate, Simmons has a wife, Tricia, and two sons, Gregory and Brandent.

Pair to Play in College

A pair of North Moore seniors plan to extend their soccer careers at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Va.

Luis Peralta and Edgar Cabrera will join Wasp coach Travis Fravel’s program in the fall.

“I’m so excited, so happy,” said Peralta, a striker. “I always wanted to go to college and play.”

The pair will join 2009 North Moore graduate Manny Mendoza on the team.

“Coach had a contact with their coach,” said Cabrera, a midfielder. “We were able to meet him at an open house, and he offered us a spot on the team.

“I think it will be fun, but also more responsibility and work.”

Peralta and Cabrera were the only two seniors on a North Moore team that finished 10-10 in 2009, including 9-7 in Yadkin Valley 1A Conference play. The team started the season 0-6 but won 10 of its next 13 games to qualify for the state playoffs.

The duo are both Mexican immigrants, with Cabrera hailing from Michoacan and Peralta coming from Guanajuato. They plan to room together in college.

New Coaches

Michael Shamberger will take the boys’ soccer program back from his son, Ben, in the fall.

The elder Shamberger, who founded the soccer program at North Moore, has been named the Mustangs’ boys’ soccer coach, athletic director Bob Collins announced.

In addition, Carrie Baker is the new cheerleading coach, and Ann Hussey has been hired as athletic trainer.