A familiar face in south Fulton has sparked Westlake’s best start in decades

But Whitley was tired.

“It wasn’t any fun anymore for me down there, and I got home, and my kids were taller than me,” Whitley said. “I said, ‘What am I doing?’ and I said, ‘Man, I’m coming home.’”

Whitley left college football in November 2023. After a two-year stint at nearby Northgate, Westlake’s new coach is finally living and working in the same school district.

He’s also led Westlake, which went 5-6 and 4-7 in its last two seasons, to its first 5-0 start since 1999. The Lions made history with a 61-51 win at Houston County on Friday.

But perhaps the most enjoyable part of Whitley’s first season is the opportunity to coach his son, senior receiver Avery Whitley, in football for the first time.

“When I first heard (my dad would coach Westlake), I was happy,” Avery Whitley said. “I knew he was a great coach, and I knew he could help the program out well, so when he came, it really just made me work harder because that’s my dad.”

In three years, Whitley’s job transformed from obstructing his fatherhood to enhancing it.

“It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” Whitley said. “I’m five minutes from the school, I get to coach my son, and I get to coach guys that I’ve known since they were little kids. I’ve coached all of them in rec basketball, rec baseball.”

Whitley and Westlake football have been close parallels since he moved to the school district over 20 years ago. Whitley moved to the area in 2003 when he became head coach at Creekside (about 15 miles south of Westlake).

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

Whitley amassed a 52-16 record and won two region titles at Creekside before taking over at Stockbridge. The Tigers had never made the state playoffs in their 46-year history when Whitley arrived in 2009.

By 2012, Stockbridge had a 3-3 record in playoff games and won the program’s first region championship. The Tigers won five region titles and advanced to the state quarterfinals for seven straight years before Whitley left in 2018.

The whole time, though, Whitley stayed connected to Westlake. He knew every head coach personally and offered help where it was needed.

Whitley was particularly close to Westlake over the last four years as his children attended the school. When he returned home full-time to coach Northgate, he’d even attend Westlake booster club meetings (Northgate and Westlake haven’t played each other since 2007).

Naturally, Whitley was interested when the Westlake job opened up last November. He could finally coach in his home community.

Those deep community ties have helped Whitley get off to a fast start because he didn’t have to spend as much time building relationships with players as he has in past jobs.

“Most of them have been to my house to spend the night and that type of stuff,” Whitley said. “So I kind of hit the ground running because I already had relationships with parents and with teachers.”

That connection extends beyond his team, too. Whitley said kids in Westlake’s band and in the hallways call him “coach” — not because of his current title — but because he coached them in youth sports.

Those relationships were especially important considering where Westlake was when Whitley took over. The Lions had plenty of talent the last two seasons but finished with losing records.

Westlake quarterback Cannon Robinson was one of the players that Whitley coached as a little kid. The junior saw immediate changes in the program when Whitley took over.

“He was going to install discipline in us from Day 1,” said Robinson. “He was going to get it out of us, and there’s no right or wrong way. It’s just going to be coach Whitley’s way, and that’s what it was.”

That discipline was on display in the win over Houston County on Friday. The Lions hadn’t passed the 50-yard-line, initially falling behind 17-0.

But Westlake kept fighting, and Robinson connected on three touchdown passes before halftime for a 19-17 lead.

Houston County kept challenging Westlake throughout the night, but Westlake kept responding. Robinson finished with seven total touchdowns, and the offense tallied 751 total yards.

Even after the historic win, Whitley was upset about undisciplined plays. The veteran coach congratulated his team for the win and quickly pivoted to yelling about mental mistakes that kept Houston County in the game.

“It’s about the standard we set for ourselves,” Whitley said. “The scoreboard is irrelevant.”

You don’t have to know Westlake like Whitley does to know the program produces talent. Westlake has five active NFL players and one Heisman Trophy winner alumnus, former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

In April, when Avieon Terrell was drafted to the Falcons and Zion Young to the Ravens, Westlake took first place in Georgia with the most NFL draft picks since 2000, according to AJC Varsity’s Todd Holcomb.

There are at least 11 players on Whitley’s roster with Division I football scholarship offers. The Lions already had the star power for a playoff push — they just needed the direction.

“I think you’ve just got to put things in place so the talent can shine,” Whitley said. “You got talent and you’re undisciplined, they don’t hold each other accountable, they’re not on time anywhere, they’re not good students, they’re not good people in the building.

“It’s hard to win on the field with characters. You’ve got to have some character.”

Whitley realized when he arrived at Westlake that some players didn’t know the names of teammates they had played the year before. So the veteran coach started there.

“One of the biggest things I do when I first get on campus was say, ‘Hey, if you don’t learn each others’ names, you’re going to run,’” Whitley said. “We had to do some running, but now all of our players know each other.”

Football and high schoolers have changed a lot since Whitley moved in 2003. But to Whitley, the process of developing winners is the same.

“I try to go in and locate kids that are hungry and want to win,” Whitley said. “Once I identify those players, we go to work.”