Laney tabs Luke Little as new football coach

***Cover photo courtesy of The News Reporter***

A familiar face is returning to Southeastern N.C. 

Laney has hired Luke Little as its next football coach according to Athletic Director Fred Lynch. During his 13-year career, Little has compiled a 103-64 record and 10 winning seasons.

Luke Little has been named the new football coach at Laney. [Photo courtesy of The News Reporter]

He will replace Ashaad Yeoman, who stepped down on Dec. 4 after spending six years at his alma mater and had a record of 31-38. 

“We were looking for a coach who had been successful at the schools where they had been and we were also looking for a coach who had rebuilt programs,” Lynch said. “The last couple years haven’t been real good and we were looking for someone who had experience coming into schools in that situation and he had done that at Whiteville and Freedom.”

Little, who will be a Physical Education teacher, returns to the area after spending the past two seasons at Freedom in Morganton. He led the Patriots to back-to-back winning seasons and finished with a record of 16-8.

Prior to his stop at Freedom, Little served as the head coach at Whiteville from 2012-2017, compiling a 53-25 record with the Wolfpack. They had 11 wins in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

Little started his head coaching career at South Stanly, where he went 34-31 in five seasons. Prior to that, he worked as an assistant at West Brunswick and Whiteville.

His teams have averaged more than 40 points each of the past three seasons and 30 or more points six of the past seven years. Defensively, teams under Little have given up an average of 20 points or less nine times.

Laney has struggled with consistency since reaching the 4A state title game in 2001. Over the past 18 seasons, the Buccaneers have had only six winning seasons and finished with eight victories in 2011 and 2016. 

“I’m extremely excited for our program to get back to where I know it can be,” Lynch said. “I’ve been here a long time and I’ve been through the lean times and those stretches where we were very good, so I know what Laney can be.

“We are also realistic and we don’t expect him to walk in and we go from 2-8 to 8-2. We’re not asking for miracles, but we hope that in a couple years after getting more kids out and changing the culture that all this will be positive.”