Ashe County High School’s new head football coach is Brian Hampton, according to media reports including the Winston-Salem Journal.

Hampton, who has been the head coach at North Surry for the last three years, will take over for Bill Strong, who retired after 34 years in coaching and the last six at Ashe County.

Hampton is a 1992 graduate of old Beaver Creek High and played one year of football at Emory and Henry College before a back injury ended his playing career. He graduated from Emory and Henry in 1996 and then spent one year as an assistant coach at Chowan College before returning to his college alma mater and serving eight years as an assistant there.

At the high school level, he spent four years at Alleghany before being hired as the coach at North Surry in 2009. North has been in the NCHSAA class 2-AA playoffs the last two years and posted records of 9-3 and 7-4 during that stretch.