Raiders add Shaw as an assistant coach

ROCKINGHAM — There will be a new face on the Richmond sideline come football season in the fall.

The Raiders have hired Spencer Shaw as an assistant coach to fill the void on the varsity coaching staff left by former quarterbacks coach Jay Jones, who has “decided to step away from coaching” going forward, according to head coach Bryan Till.

Shaw will be one of Richmond’s strength and conditioning coaches, along with assistant coach James Johnson, working mostly with the incoming freshmen. However, Till said Shaw’s positional responsibilities are “still up in the air due to the moving pieces on the coaching staff.”

“Coach Shaw has been an interim head coach and is very organized and knowledgeable,” Till said. “He can coach multiple positions and has an understanding of both sides of the ball. This is why the staff responsibilities are not set as of right now. We want to get the best mix of what everyone is comfortable with and knowledgeable about in order to best prepare our players.”

Before arriving at Richmond, Shaw was the offensive coordinator at East Mecklenburg High School, but after the team’s head coach was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and decided to step down, Shaw was named the team’s interim head coach for the Eagles’ 2021 spring season.

But, since he currently lives in the southern part of Stanly County, he added that he’s been looking for a new position that would be closer to home for him.

“It was a little over an hour away for me to go to East Meck every day,” Shaw said. “So during the offseason, I plotted a few jobs close to home and the Richmond one just fit. It’s a great program and it felt like a great opportunity for me and my family to get involved in the community.”

Shaw has already hit the ground running as the Raiders began workouts this week.

“The energy in the program, the amount of kids that are there, the amount of coaches actively in the building,” Shaw said, “I’ve been at several different places, and I feel like the atmosphere is unmatched. Coach Till is a great leader — that was something that stood out to me and part of the reason I took the job. I felt like we clicked and connected really early. He has a vision for the program that I agree with in creating young men and teaching them more than just the game of football.”

Being new to the school, Shaw said he hopes to start building relationships with the players, parents and those in the community that are invested in Richmond football.

“People don’t know anything about you at first,” Shaw said. “So you have to show them how much you care about them to begin with. Aside from just teaching X’s and O’s, definitely the first thing is to build relationships with the kids that I’ll coach.”

Shaw played at East Mecklenburg and began his coaching career at Rocky River High School in 2010, coaching the offensive line while getting his degree in history and secondary education at UNC-Charlotte.

He “bounced around” a little bit after that, coaching at North Gaston, Burns and Olympic, before taking over as offensive coordinator at East Mecklenburg, where he was for the past two years before arriving at Richmond this summer.

“I appreciate the opportunity,” Shaw said. “I’m excited to get ingrained in the tradition and be in the community.”

Till said the varsity staff will remain intact going forward into the upcoming season this fall. Even though defensive backs coach Chris Campolieta has left Hamlet Middle School, he will still be continuing as an assistant coach for the Raiders in the fall.

However, Till added that they do plan to hire at least one more assistant coach for the junior varsity team this summer.