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The last time Smith High won a football game was Aug. 18, 2006. Since then, the Golden Eagles have lost 21 straight. Last season, they went 0-11, were outscored 442-29 and failed to score in six games.

The crowds that traveled to see them on the road often numbered no more than a dozen, athletics director Charlie Barnes said, and most of them "came to see the band more than the football team."

So when coach Jon Oakley and the school parted ways after the season, Barnes knew his replacement had to be just as much archaeologist as coach, someone who was willing to roll up his sleeves and dig this once-proud program out of its hole.

"I knew that someone was going to turn this program around," Rodney Brewington said. "And I knew that someone could be me."

Brewington, a former Smith assistant who spent the past three seasons as defensive coordinator at Atkins in Winston-Salem, has been chosen to lead the revival. It's his first head coaching opportunity but far from his first renaissance project.

He started coaching at Lift Academy, a charter school in Winston-Salem, while he was a student at Winston-Salem State. That program was on such hard times the coaching staff had to ask for socks.

But he had found his calling. He became an assistant at Bishop McGuinness, which earned a playoff berth in his second season, and at Atkins, which went 1-10 in Brewington's first season and was in the playoffs two years later.

"He was one of the first ones to apply for the job," Barnes said of the opening at Smith. "He's young. He's energetic. He's been through it before."

Barnes is preaching patience with his new coach, predicting a few more victories next season, but stressing that it will likely take three to five years for the turnaround to be complete.

That foundation is being laid now. Brewington said 82 students showed up for a recent informational meeting.

"They were so ready to get a ball and start proving what they could do," he said. "But like I told them, none of that makes a difference unless you know how to be a football player."

Brewington, 33, has a little experience there, as well. He played defensive back on the state championship team at Hope Mills South View in 1991 and was recruited to play at the college level.

His real football education came through his bloodlines. Brewington's brother played at N.C. Central, and he has two uncles who work in the NFL -- Tony Medlin is the equipment manager for the Chicago Bears, and Ronald Medlin is the head athletic trainer for the Atlanta Falcons. Brewington made use of those connections as often as he could growing up, checking out practices and learning how football was managed at the highest level.

Since accepting the position at Smith, he's received calls of congratulations from several Bears coaches.

"How many high school coaches can do that?" he asked.

Now Brewington gets to put that preparation into practice. He knows the obstacles of this job, says he's "heard the horror stories about Smith."

"But these kids are going to surprise a lot of people in this community," he said. "You can take the kids as high as you want to take them, but you have to be willing to go as low as the kids are. You can't stand on a platform and tell the kids, 'Hey, come up here.' You've got to get down to their level to let them know that, 'Hey, I'm here with you.'

"These kids need someone they can believe in, but they also need someone who believes in them."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com.