Kermit Blount shows no signs of bitterness about the way his coaching career at Winston-Salem State ended.
Blount, 52, spent 17 seasons running WSSU's football program before school officials asked him to resign last November, with a year left on his contract. Despite numerous opportunities to voice displeasure about the turn of events, Blount hasn't said anything that might embarrass his alma mater.
"People ask me all the time why I'm not bitter, but I'm just not that guy," Blount said. "And even if I did talk about the way it ended, how is that going to make the program better? I want to see the program succeed, and I want Connell (Maynor) to succeed because this is my alma mater -- that's just the way I feel."
Blount, now a special assistant to Athletics Director Bill Hayes, has stepped away from football and has put his competitive drive into fund raising for athletics, helping Hayes with several projects. He said that stepping back from coaching hasn't been a bad thing.
"The last time I wasn't in football was in the fall of 1980," said Blount, who graduated from WSSU in 1980 after a record-setting career as a quarterback. "Then that next fall, I got into high-school coaching and teaching and have been in it ever since -- until this fall."
Blount worked as an assistant at East Carolina, Howard and S.C. State before he was hired as WSSU's head coach in 1993. He compiled a 91-87-3 record and became WSSU's career leader in coaching victories.
He hasn't closed the book on coaching just yet.
"I've had my nose down there on the sidelines for a long time," he said. "In some ways, it's been good to experience how it is on the other side. And for me, after doing it so long, you get caught up in it maybe a little too much. But I'll be OK."
Blount said that there have been some awkward moments around the football offices, but his new office is at the Gaines Center, not at the Bowman Gray Field House. He has made it a point to stay away from practice and out of the way of Maynor and his staff.
"I know as a coach you want to limit distractions, and I don't want to be any type of distraction for those guys," Blount said.
Still, Blount plans to attend Saturday night's season opener against Virginia Union in High Point. He's looking forward to seeing one of his former assistants, Calvin Randall, now an assistant at Virginia Union. But his vantage point will be from a seat in the stands.
"I don't have to worry about the X's and O's and all of that," he said.
Blount said he hasn't missed coaching that much but that he expects his feelings to change Saturday.
"When I see the kids going through pre-game down on the field," he said, "that's when it will probably hit me the most."
Blount said he has had fun working with Hayes again as they try to raise money. Hayes was Blount's head coach at WSSU in the late 1970s, and together they helped raise the profile of the WSSU football program.
Blount also has had time to have minor foot surgery that he had put off and to tackle his wife, Ava's, long to-do list.
"It doesn't matter if I'm coaching or not, the to-do list from Ava is always there," Blount said laughing. "Even though I've been around home more, the list doesn't seem to get any shorter."
Now an interested fan, Blount said he hopes for the best for the Rams.
"I have no hard feelings," he said, "I just want to see the program be as good as it can be."
jdell@wsjournal.com
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