TAMPA, Fla. — The Sickles High School football team added a new coach this season.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive lineman William Gholston joined the Gryphons as a volunteer defensive coach.
WATCH: Bucs' Super Bowl champ Gholston joins Sickles coaching staff
“At first I thought he was a basketball player,” senior linebacker Zachary Radzicki said. “I was in the training room talking to our trainer, and I saw this behemoth of a man. ‘Who is that?’ I found out it was Coach.”
Gholston played for the Bucs for his entire 12-year career, which includes winning a Super Bowl ring during the 2020 season.
This career Buccaneer does have some coaching experience with his son’s youth team. But while he’s testing free agency, he decided to stay in Tampa and help Sickles head coach Xavier Bolden.
“I’m doing it right now for the love of the game just to make sure it’s something I want to do,” Gholston said. "I think throughout my process of coaching, I enjoy the developmental process of teaching somebody or watching them fulfill what we want them to do.”
Gholston, who Tampa Bay selected in the fourth round of the 2013 Draft, recorded 432 tackles, 20.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries, and one interception in 186 regular-season and playoff games.
The Sickles players have an opportunity to learn from Gholston’s experiences.
“He has been such an influence for us ever since he walked in the building,” Radzicki said. “You’ll think a coach like that with experience will be giving you a lot of technique, which he is. But it’s all mental that he’s been giving us.”
Gholston is not on an NFL roster, but he is not officially retired. For now, he’ll continue to develop and inspire the younger generation.
“I am a defensive coach. I help in all facets. Whenever I can give a hand, I give a hand,” he said. “Predominantly now, I am coaching the defensive line. I want to become a defensive coordinator one day. That day will come."
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