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The Dare County Shrine Club was full Monday night, February 26 for a meet and greet to welcome Timmy Charity as Manteo High School’s new head football coach.

Charity graduated from MHS in 2007 and helped carry the football team to a regional title and a state championship appearance in 2006. He attended North Carolina Central University on a full football scholarship, playing center and right guard for four years.

Semi-professional followed for Charity, playing for the Carolina Ducks, East Carolina Rams and East Carolina Phantoms from 2013 to 2020.

During this time, from 2013 to 2016, Charity led the Manteo Middle School football team as head football coach and assistant basketball coach, followed by a head JV football coach position at MHS from 2016 to 2018. He has served as a defensive coordinator for the varsity football team since 2019, and head varsity men’s basketball coach since 2018.

In a speech to students, parents, and community members, Charity outlined his goals for the MHS football program.

For the 2024 football season, he named five goals: first, to bring back the Manteo traditions from the time when he played; second, to get as many middle and high school kids back out on the football field as possible; third, work on making players bigger, faster and stronger, particularly through work in the weight room; fourth, build scholarship athletes; and fifth, encourage community support.

His goals for the team included upholding academic standards for all players by maintaining at least a 2.5 GPA, competing day in and day out, and winning a conference championship.

The end goal, Charity said, is to bring a state championship back to Manteo.

“We’re starting at ground zero with this program,” he told players and families. “It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past, we’re going to start from scratch.”

He encouraged everyone in the room to encourage their kids and grandkids to get back involved in football in Manteo, and stressed the importance of community involvement. He also said he’s planning on having a JV team if there’s enough interest.

“We need to get those fan stands filled,” he stressed.

One of the ways Charity said the community could support the program is through business sponsorships. “We don’t want the community support just when we’re doing good. We need everyone to stay involved and supportive all the time.”

Charity said conference realignment is coming, though not this coming year. Manteo High School may be moving to a smaller 2A conference, or to 1A. “Right now we’re playing in a tough conference,” Charity said.

“Is it going to be tough? Yeah. We can bring back that culture of competing at that level and that’s what I want to do.”

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