BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Lamar Waters went from thinking he wouldn’t be doing any coaching upon his return to Union County to now taking over the high school football program as an interim coach for the 2025 season in the aftermath of Andrew Thomas’ firing.
Waters took a teaching position in Union during the 2024-25 year after coaching and serving as athletic director in Williston. He hadn’t planned on doing any coaching, but he was offered the opportunity to join the UCHS football staff in the spring, which he did since his son Kanaan was playing.
His son was a big reason he felt he needed to step up and take on the interim role, but not the only reason.
“At the end of the day, I couldn’t leave him out there by himself,” Waters said. “That was a little selfish on my part. I didn’t want to leave my own son out there, but at the same time, I had made some connections in my short time (back) here with some of the other kids.
“No matter where I’ve been, I’ve always rooted for Union County, so I just thought it was something I needed to do.”
His responsibilities as athletic director in Williston took up a lot of his time. He was ready to take advantage of an opportunity to return to Union when a teaching position opened up. That would allow him to see more of his family. His wife, Erin, already works in the school system and sons Kanaan and Kyson are Union students. Waters’ oldest son, Kale, graduated from UCHS in 2023.
“The people in Williston were very great and gracious to me, helping me out as much as possible, but I just wanted to be closer (to home),” Waters said. “I was starting to miss more stuff with my kids. I’ve given a lot of time to other people’s kids. It was just time to give a little bit more back to mine.”
Since becoming the UCHS interim coach, Waters, who will also handle athletic-director duties, has been busy hiring coaches after five assistants resigned (see related story). In talking to a Telegraph-Times-Monitor journalist on June 3, Waters said he was close to completing his staff and noted that it looked as if it would consist of some who played for the Tigers and some who’ve played and coached collegiately.
Waters said he and the program have already received great support in such a short period of time. He said he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to feed players breakfast on the morning of June 3, as summer workouts are now underway. Now, it looks as if he may have someone providing breakfast and lunch for the remainder of the week and possibly for the whole summer.
Also, he said that many who work for the school district have offered to help in any way they can.
“I can’t say enough about how much people have helped us and how much the good Lord has blessed us,” Waters said.
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