Sloan returns to his roots

Sloan. A name that often takes one’s mind back to legendary football coach Tommy Sloan, especially those in the Midway community. After all, it is the name that the football stadium at Midway High School bears. Coming this fall, though, the Raider community will have a new reason to give attention to the name as Barrett Sloan, Tommy’s son, takes the helm of the Midway football program.

Being a homegrown hire, Barrett has the opportunity to add to the legacy that is the Sloan family name.

For Midway, the Raiders are hoping for some stability with their new hire. While Sloan has spent the past six seasons with the Lakewood Leopards, compiling a 32-33 overall record to go along with five playoff appearances, Midway has endured a couple of coaching changes after a pair of out-of-town guys moved on to other opportunities.

Barrett, though, wants to do things his own way and without the thought of “Tommy Sloan’s son” hanging over his head.

“I’m excited about making the move to Midway and being closer to home,” the younger Sloan said in a recent interview. “Midway has the presence of their community and I’m excited to be a part of it. It’s enticing, as a coach, to come somewhere where the community is excited about their sports and the athletes.”

But he also wanted to make it clear that he loved his time with the Lakewood Leopards. Coming back to Midway, he said, means he is looking forward to being able to come home and to soak in the enthusiasm that is Raider Country.

“It was enticing to come back home. The parents and the community as a whole have been so supportive, and it has been great,” Sloan stated. “It’s good to have the community on board and it’s been nice to lean on them as I have made this short transition.”

To get started on the right foot, Barrett has the unique privilege of working alongside his legendary father. In his retirement, Tommy Sloan has served as assistant to Barrett at Lakewood and is expected to take up that same role at Midway this fall.

The younger Sloan is excited for the opportunity to continue coaching alonside his dad, hoping to continue turning things around at Midway and restoring the program back to the glory days they enjoyed back when the elder Sload was head coach. Barrett, though, has maintained that his excitement is much more driven for the opportunity to simply coach at Midway…not necessarily “carry on” the Sloan dynasty.

Both Sloans, though, will have quite the challenge before them as they prepare to don the Raider blue. Midway is a larger school than what they are used to, playing a slate of different teams than they are used to, and a whole new conference than what they are used to.

When Tommy coached the Raiders from 1973 to 1998 and again from 2009 to 2013, Midway was a much smaller 1A school. In that time, the elder Sloan put together a record of 214-127 and racked up eight conference championships. He also won a State 1A Championship in 1978 and a State 1A Runner-up finish in 1988. He also coached baseball for Midway during that time and led that team to a 1A State Championship in 1981. Rounding out his long list of accomplishments, the football stadium was named after him in 2018.

But there is a recurring theme to note in all of his accomplishments. Tommy coached a Midway team that was 1A during both of his stints. The same goes for Barrett at Lakewood. Now, they will both try their hands against teams of the 2A caliber. They’ll trade in a conference slate full of schools like Hobbton, Union, and Rosewood and move up to face teams like Clinton, St. Pauls, and West Bladen.

Still, the experience the two bring to the table is more than enough to put some excitement in the Spivey’s Corner air. Even during the deep playoff runs the baseball and softball teams made back in the spring, there was plenty of buzz in the air as news spread that the Sloans were coming home.

In a previous interview back in the spring, Barrett said he was already catching word of folks comparing him to his father. He was having none of it and brushing off any thoughts of the shoes his dad left him to fill.

“A lot of folks have asked me that, but I don’t necessarily see it like that. I see it as a torch that is being passed on. I’m going take it and keep it moving forward, that’s my job,” Sloan stated. “Obviously, Dad had a lot of success here, but a lot of things are different now than in the 90s.”

High School football has seen plenty of change in the past couple of decades and not just on the field. The presence of social media has changed the way athletes are able to not only interact with each other but with coaches, recruiters, and even local media outlets. Now, more than ever, the exposure and accessibility of athletes and teams on the whole has never been higher.

The same goes for coaches, which the younger Sloan takes full advantage of. One stroll through his X (formerly Twitter) account and you can see Sloan constantly using the platform to promote his team and his players, constantly showing them love and words of encouragement. The beast that is social media brings quite the set of changes from what Tommy is used to.

In that same interview, though, there was another kind of change that Barrett alluded to that has a much different and more significant meaning — the change of switching schools and getting to come home.

“Change is always difficult, but sometimes it’s a good thing,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being closer to where I grew up and being closer to my roots, where things started for me, where I fell in love with the game and fell in love with what it means.”

The younger Sloan graduated from Midway in 2011 and was quarterback under his father during that time. Pair that with the six seasons they spent together at Lakewood, the duo of Barrett and Tommy isn’t exactly a new combination and the roots they’ve sown together will be invaluable come this fall.

Also, something the Sloan duo will have to look forward to is the addition of a new fieldhouse adjacent to the football stadium. Barrett previously alluded to the facilities that Midway has at their disposal, and come Spring 2025, those facilities will become even more abundant. Barrett touched on the new fieldhouse and expressed excitement about what it will bring to Midway athletics.

“The fieldhouse is coming along. They’ve been working on it all summer and progress has been smooth. We’re hearing it could be early spring when we get in but they may be ahead of schedule a little. With the drought we’ve had, there haven’t been any hold ups both from the weather or from other delays that could otherwise hold up construction so everything is progressing well. I’m trying to help out as I can but I’m also trying to stay out of the way,” Sloan said.

At the end of the day, Barrett still had one thing he wanted to remind every one of this upcoming season. He wants to make it known that he doesn’t want to simply fill his father’s shoes or walk in his father’s shadow. No, Barrett wants to build his own legacy and someday be able to hang his hat on a career full of his own success stories as he, one day, passes on the torch to the next head coach.