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Coach Josh McGee of Reagan was a standout quarterback at West before graduating in 2001; coached two years for the Titans under Adrian Snow

By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier

There are many rivalries within the Central Piedmont 4-A, but there may be no bigger one than West Forsyth and Reagan.
The two schools — West Forsyth in Clemmons and Reagan in Pfafftown — are separated by less than 10 miles. The two football teams are scheduled to square off Friday night in Pfafftown and picked up wins last Thursday — West Forsyth won at Glenn and Reagan won at Davie County.
West Forsyth (2-4, 1-2) has won two games in a row while Reagan is 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
“It’s one of those deals where I think you throw out all the records and here we go,” Coach Adrian Snow of West Forsyth said. “The kids will be excited to play and I know theirs will be too.”
One person who knows this rivalry as well as anybody is Coach Josh McGee of Reagan. He played quarterback at West Forsyth and graduated in 2001. He played collegiately at Winston-Salem State and later was an assistant coach under Snow at West Forsyth in 2009 and 2010. He has been the head coach at Reagan since 2011.
“I’ll be honest with you, when I first became the head coach, for probably the first five years, it was a really big deal to me,” McGee said. “But over the last five to seven years, it really has just become another game.
“West Forsyth will always be special for me, and the people that I met there. That’s where my wife and I met. With the people there, it will always be special. But I’m so entrenched in Reagan High School and our community and what we’ve been able to build. Again, it’s a great rivalry for our kids and our schools. Our schools are very similar. Obviously, it’s close. But me personally, it really has just become another conference game.”
McGee was named head coach at Reagan in February 2011. Since then, West Forsyth leads the series 9-4. However, Reagan won 15-9 last year in Clemmons.
“Obviously, going against one of my best friends (Snow),” McGee said. “You know you have to play your absolute best to win.”
McGee said that he and Snow speak regularly, but once it’s game week when the two teams play there is no communication until they meet on the field before the JV game on Thursday.
“I love him and he’s a good man, good dad, and he does a really good job of coaching,” Snow said of McGee. “So, it’s one of those things, you’ve got to go play. I just hope he loses (this) week, just like he hopes we do, too.”
Included in the 13 meetings since 2011 were two playoff games. The Titans won the regular-season finale 21-16 in 2018 in Pfafftown, but the very next week, Reagan came to Clemmons for an NCHSAA Class 4-AA playoff game and upended the Titans 34-20.
“For the kids, I still think it’s a rivalry,” McGee said. “For them, obviously, more than for myself. They all know each other. They all hang out outside of school. But I do think that we have a group that is really just locked in on the task at hand every week. You’re able to put those friendships aside for three hours and get after it.”
Also, in 2019, the two teams met twice. The Titans won the regular-season game 31-21 in Clemmons, and three weeks later, they met in the playoffs and the Titans won 28-12.
“When you get a chance, when you’re playing your rival in the playoffs, then you have an opportunity to end their season,” McGee said. “I think that’s something that your guys really get excited about. We’ve both been on that end of that. We’ve lost to them in the playoffs, and we’ve beat them in the playoffs.
“It’s kind of gone back and forth, but that’s just the way that thing works.”
As for West Forsyth, things are looking brighter after winning the last two games.
“We’ll take it,” Snow said. “You’ve got to savor winning. And anytime you have a winning streak you’ve got to savor it. You’re 2-1 in the league. That’s the way you’ve got to look at it. But we’ll take them one week at a time.”