When Gary Wortham began coaching high school football in 1992, he had two aspirations: To become a head coach and to oversee a program in need of a lift. He achieved both on Thursday when Freedom named Wortham as its new head coach.
Wortham, who has spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Gar-Field, takes over a program that has struggled since the school opened in 2004. As a varsity team, the Eagles have gone 7-43 in five seasons, including a 0-10 mark last fall.
“I’ve always been part of staffs involved in rebuilding programs,” Wortham said. “It’s been a passion of mine to be a head coach with a team that needed to have a rebuilding process.”
The third head football coach in Freedom’s six seasons, Wortham replaces John Robinette, who resigned his position after three seasons to become an assistant coach at Forest Park.
Wortham was one of 17 applicants for the opening and one of eight interviewed.
“That was more than we had when the position was last open,” Freedom activities director Brad Qualls said in reference to the number of applicants. “It shows we are making progress.”
The 41-year-old Wortham, who interviewed for the Freedom job the last time it was available, has been an assistant at T.C. Williams as well as Woodbridge. Larry Johnson, currently an assistant football coach at Penn State, hired Wortham on his T.C. Williams staff in 1992.
Wortham was there for four seasons before going to Woodbridge for two and then returning back to T.C. Williams.
He joined the Vikings’ staff again in 2003 and was a member of the Woodbridge team that advanced to the Division 6 state championship game in 2007 before heading to Gar-Field after Viking assistant Tom Gryder was named the Indians’ head coach.
Wortham currently works as a truancy officer at Woodbridge.
“He is going to bring a lot of excitement to the program,” Qualls said.
Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-878-8052.
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