Chris Cutcliffe: Following A dream to become a head coach
Oxford High School football head coach Chris Cutcliffe gets to live out his dream as a head coach at his high school alma mater.
For Cutcliffe, being a coach started early as a kid being the son of head coach David Cutcliffe.
“I’ve wanted to coach as long as I can remember,” Cutcliffe said.
In college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville he got his start in coaching.
“I worked as a student manager for the Tennessee football team in undergrad,” Cutcliffe said.
In grad school, Cutcliffe changed the orange and white over to the blue and white of Durham, North Carolina to follow his father who was the head coach at Duke.
Cutcliffe played high school sports at Oxford after his father was named the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels in 1998. Growing up, he always admired the quarterbacks he had been around that his father had coached.
“Heath Shuler, Peyton Manning, Tee Martin, Romaro Miller, Eli Manning,” Cutcliffe said when recalling those quarterbacks.
In 2011, Cutcliffe joined the Oxford High football staff under his head coach Johnny Hill.
“It is a tremendous honor to coach at OHS,” he said. “I had such a great experience as a student, and I hope to pass that experience on.”
Coach Hill decided to step back as the head coach after the 2015 season, and Cutcliffe got the chance to be the head coach of the Chargers in 2016.
“It was special to be able to follow in Coach Johnny Hill’s footsteps,” Cutcliffe said. “He laid an amazing foundation for Oxford football.”
Every coach has a special bond with their mentors of the game, and for Chris it is his father, David.
“First and foremost, my dad. I’ve certainly learned X’s and O’s from my dad, but more importantly, I’ve learned about being a leader,” he said.
The scoreboard at Bobby Holcomb Field at a practice. Photo by Adam Brown
For Cutcliffe, his tenure thus far roaming the sidelines of Bobby Holcomb Field, the home of the Chargers, includes the school’s first-ever State Championship title he and his staff brought back in 2019.
“I cherish the memories of watching our players and former players celebrate the state championship on the field,” Cutcliffe said. “We had been so close so many times before finally getting over the hump.”
Since claiming a state title for the program, Cutcliffe has teamed up with Dr. Hunter Taylor and written a book on how the Chargers won a state crown. The book is titled, How to Build a Thick Institution: Organizational Lessons from a Champion High School Football Program.
“He came and observed our football program as a fly on the wall and gave some great feedback on things he saw and we took it from there and started working together and collaborating regularly,” Cutcliffe said of Dr. Taylor.
As a coach, Cutcliffe looks to enrich his players’ lives on and off the gridiron.
“I coach because I want to make a positive impact on young people,” Cutcliffe said. “I get so much joy out of watching our players succeed.”
Oxford quarterbacks meet with Cutcliffe after practice. Photo by Adam Brown
Oxford High School football helmet. Photo by Adam Brown
The Chargers pregame warming up. Photo by Adam Brown
Chris Cutcliffe giving Dr. Hunter Taylor a game ball after their new book How to Build a Thick Institution: Organizational Lessons from a Championship High School Football Program was released. Photo courtesy of OHS
The Chargers huddled up around Chris Cutcliffe during a timeout. Photo by Adam Brown
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
