VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Phillip Sims is used to winning in the 757. He did it as a player at Oscar Smith and now hopes he can find repeat success on the sidelines at Princess Anne.
Sims was announced as the new head football coach of the Cavaliers on Tuesday and began his tenure by meeting players and parents at the high school on Friday afternoon.
"It was just the perfect time to come home," Sims said. "Princess Anne was a place that I felt very comfortable with, a lot of familiar faces around here that I've known for years, and we know what this place can be. We've seen it and we look forward to bringing that back."
Sims has spent the last six years in the Richmond area. He got his first head coaching gig at John Marshall in the city before moving to nearby J.R. Tucker in Henrico County, engineering turnarounds for both programs. Now he takes the reins of a Princess Anne squad that has just one win in the last two seasons combined.
"I'm a firm believer that culture is everything," he said. "It's not a lack of talent. Whatever the case may be, it's all about culture. You develop, you establish and you create a culture that is prohibitive to winning. That's our goal."
Hampton Roads is where Sims started to make a name for himself. As a quarterback at Oscar Smith, he led the Tigers to their first state championship in 2008. His college career saw stops at Alabama, Virginia and Winston-Salem State and he worked out at a couple of NFL camps after college. After his first two coaching stops just northwest of here, he's returned to his home area.
"Getting my start in Richmond, it was great," he said. "I'm thankful for those schools and those programs for what they allowed me to establish and allowing me to build a resume as a coach, but coming home is a little different to me. I'll tell anybody I'm 757 born and bred. That hits home. Establishing something here, I can't put a price on that."
Sims comes to Virginia Beach as an experienced coach. His first two stops allowed him to learn about himself as a coach and get rid of some of those growing pains that young head coaches experience and now brings a more fine-tuned approach to the Cavaliers.
"I'd like to think I'm more composed, I've [taken] my lumps, my bumps, we've learned along the way," Sims pointed out. "Everything is not what you think it is, but also I've learned quite a bit of the positives as well. I've learned how to delegate, I've learned how to trust. All of those things are hard for a young coach."
