By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier

Being a head coach in any sport is time consuming, but when you’re a head coach of perennially strong team it’s even more taxing.
And for that reason, and not being able to spend enough time with his family, Coach Jason Hooker, who has been the head wrestling coach at West Forsyth since 2017, resigned last month.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” he said. “I’ve just been praying on it a lot this last month of the season, and just thinking about — you know my daughter got married in August and we don’t ever see them because they moved to Georgia.”
Hooker replaced Maurice Atwood, who helped guide West Forsyth to consecutive NCHSAA Class 4-A dual-team wrestling championships in 2016 and 2017. Hooker stepped in and West Forsyth went back to the state championship in 2018. Cary defeated West Forsyth 38-32, ending West Forsyth’s two-year run as state champion.
“And I just think about all the time about, this is not a negative thing, all the time that I spent with other people’s kids, and I’ve been married, it’ll be 26 years and coaching 26 years, and 26 years of wrestling we made all of our decisions around wrestling,” Hooker said. “You know, vacations because we had to go to wrestling camp, or Christmas, where we’re going for Christmas because of a wrestling tournament. So, I just want to put them (family) first right now for a little bit.”
This past season, West Forsyth finished as the top seed from the Central Piedmont 4-A and was the No. 2 seed from the West in the NCHSAA Class 4-A dual-team tournament. West Forsyth defeated No. 15 Charlotte Providence 58-18 in the first round, but it lost to No. 10 Harrisburg Hickory Ridge 36-33 in the second round.
“He’s talked about it a little bit for a while,” Athletics Director Mike Pennington of West Forsyth said. “He’d been torn. He loves coaching wrestling, he loves his wrestlers, but he just feels like he needs to be with his family more. He’s got growing kids, middle-school kids. We’ve known that this was a possibility of this happening.”
In addition, Hooker was the head coach for the girls wrestling team, which officially became a sanctioned sport this past season by the NCHSAA.
“It was tough,” he said. “We had so many kids, and with a lot of, and all these kids, ever since COVID, have a lot going on, and we just had so many who had big issues to deal with. So, that’s the part that I really want to help continue to help kids with. The wrestling, only 1 percent of wrestlers in high school will go on to wrestle in college. And only 1 percent of that goes onto the Olympics and stuff like that.
“So, if you’re just pushing for that 1 percent like a lot of coaches are — win, win, win — you’re not helping the 99 percent that’s not going to go on to the next level.”
After watching other teams and coaches throughout his coaching career, Hooker realized it wasn’t just about the wins and losses.
“That’s what I really realized this year was helping those guys that were needing just mentorship and somebody to talk to, is more important than winning the matches,” he said.
Although Hooker had been contemplating resigning throughout the season, he gave himself some time to think about it. The individual wrestling championships ended on Feb. 18 at the Greensboro Coliseum, so he waited four or five weeks to finally make his decision.
“During a quiet time, reading my Bible and just some scripture I was reading through,” Hooker said of how he made the decision. “My quiet time. Ephesians 5:5: ‘Husbands love your wives as Christ, love and church died for.’ Matthew 22:26-38: ‘Love God with all your heart and soul and your mind’s first and greatest commandment.’”
The scripture that Hooker has been reading helped in balancing his family and coaching life.
“I’ve been put in wrestling before those two for a long time,” he said. “And you know, I still do things like I’m supposed to, but I just feel like I was, wrestling was always the first priority.”
One of the toughest things Hooker had to do after resigning was telling the team.
“Are you trying to ask me if I cried?,” he said. “Yeah, I cried. It was hard. Honestly, it feels like I’ve been to one of my best friends’ funerals because I’m just going through all those emotions, because I’ve been wrestling for 44 years.”
Hooker wrestled at South Stokes High School, then wrestled at Appalachian State from 1991-96, became the head coach at Mount Tabor from 1998-2007, then became the head wrestling coach at Ellis Middle School in Davie County, as well as being an assistant with Head Coach Buddy Lowery at Davie County High School from 2007-17.
“I’m 50 years old. I just turned 50, March 24,” Hooker said. “I’ve been wrestling since I was 6. So, for 44 years I’ve done wrestling. And for 26 years I’ve been a coach in college, middle school, high school, club, some level for 26 years. That’s a big part of your life.”
Pennington, who is a former basketball coach, as well as Principal Kevin Spainhour, who was also a former high school basketball coach, can empathize with what Hooker was wrestling with, so to speak, during the season.
“He’s done a great job,” Pennington said. “He’s won the conference championship the past two years, and I think he’s won several since he’s been here. You know, I think at one point in time we were ranked third in the state with 10 new wrestlers. So, I give him credit.”
Spring break is going on in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools through Monday, with school resuming on Tuesday. Hooker, who can retire in 2027, said he will remain as a PE teacher at West Forsyth.
Hooker said that he would like to help the new coach in some capacity as long as the new coach is fine with that.
“God’s used wrestling to help me get through a lot of stuff,” Hooker said. “I wasn’t the best kid or anything growing up, but it was used as a tool to keep me on track. And that’s what I got good at, and I was allowed to use that same sport and stuff to help kids that have been through the similar situations as they grew up.”