By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

ELKIN — Former South Rowan boys basketball coach Daniel Blevins is moving  home “in phases” and started his new job as a science teacher at Elkin High School when the second semester began.

“I’m teaching biology and chemistry,” Blevins said. “It’s a smaller school. About 400 students.”

It feels right for him. It feels like like old times. It’s a relaxed atmosphere. It’s reassuring to be able to look out the window and see the snowcaps on the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s sweet to know that the Yadkin River never stops rolling. He is back deep in the foothills of North Carolina, where the major pastimes are hiking, biking and growing wine. Mount Airy is about 30 miles away. The nearest major city, Winston-Salem, is 45 miles away.

This is a homecoming not only for Blevins, 43, but for his wife. Their parents are still in the area. Every day there’s a reunion for Blevins with someone he hasn’t seen in ages.

Blevins grew up in Ronda, about seven miles west of Elkin. He was a good athlete at East Wilkes High, one of Elkin’s serious rivals, excelling in track and field as a hurdler while also competing in basketball and football. He headed to Western Carolina University and left Cullowhee with a biology degree.

He entered the corporate world for a time, but he made a decision about 10 years ago that he wanted to make an impact on young people. That’s when he started to teach and coach. His time at Hickory Ridge Middle School was a springboard to him being hired as varsity head coach at South Rowan.

South’s boys basketball losing streak with Blevins as head coach has been well-documented. His teams lost the last 56 games that he coached and was 5-88 in 4 1/2 seasons. His final games at the helm of the Raiders were in the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Classic in late December.

In fairness to Blevins, South has been overmatched in boys basketball as a member of the South Piedmont Conference. South lost 81-21 to neighbor Carson on Friday. South hasn’t beaten any of the current SPC members in quite a while. The losing didn’t start with Blevins. South had a 16-107 record in the five seasons before Blevins took the job and hasn’t had a winning season since 2008-09.

“Every coach wants to win ballgames, and I wanted to win ballgames,” Blevins said. “But in a high school setting, the wins and losses are  always secondary to building young men, teaching life lessons, and I’m proud of what I was able to do in that area. I set a standard and lot of guys lived up to that standard. I know we graduated some great young men. South has great seniors now.”

A move and a coaching change at midseason is unusual, but when the opportunity to return to his roots arose, Blevins pursued it.

“In that area, it’s an opportunity that comes up about every 20 years or so,” he said. “It was a chance to go back home, and that was really the biggest thing. My wife and I talked about it. Our parents aren’t getting any younger. Our oldest son (Cannon) is a pretty darn good pitching prospect and his grandparents have never gotten to see him play. There are a lot of good reasons to make the move.”

Cannon Blevins, who was on the South Rowan basketball team, has enrolled at East Wilkes High, his father’s alma mater. While he makes new buddies, he can stay in contact with his South Rowan friends by text and social media. Moving isn’t as traumatic as it once was for school-age children, Blevins has two more sons, Carson and Corbin, athletes who are in middle school, a year apart.

Blevins is taking a break from athletics now. He’s not coaching basketball at Elkin.

He does plan to return to the coaching ranks next fall with the Elkin Buckin’ Elks football team. He’ll be an assistant coach, no pressure, just taking advantage of the opportunity to impact young athletes in a positive way.

“I do appreciate the time I had at South Rowan,” Blevins said. “I really appreciate (AD) Angie Chrismon for giving me the opportunity to work with great kids and great people.”

Justin Pauley took the coaching reigns when the new semester began. South had a close loss to East Rowan in his first game and an exciting, streak-breaking win at 1A Thomasville in his second one, before running into a Carson buzz saw last Friday. South plays a South Piedmont Conference game at Lake Norman Charter on Tuesday.