Four seasons ago, Justin Childs came back home to coach a program that he had grown up watching Farrell Rigby run from afar.
Childs started his schooling at Winston Academy before going to Grace Christian and playing out his basketball career. Basketball was Childs’ passion and coaching was where he was destined to be. So he started his career in the delta at Greenville Christian as an assistant and ultimately began coaching at Riverside High School before coming back to Louisville to to get a chance to coach the Patriots.
After four years of rebuilding a proud program, Childs is now riding off into the sunset and headed to Greenwood to coach at a school still in the infant stages, Delta Streets Academy.
Childs was approached in February about the job. He didn’t know much about the school but he went and met with administration about the mission that the school has become.
The school targets at-risk children in the area and began as an after-school program. Childs felt that he and his family had gotten too comfortable back in his home county and that he was beginning to forget the mission he has followed.
“The Delta has always held a special place in my heart because of the need and the work that we can do there,” Childs said. “The harvest is plentiful there. It’s a huge opportunity at a school and place like that. We knew that this was in His will.”
More than anything, it was the mission that attracted Childs and his family to move.
While the program at WA was beginning to gain stability and he enjoyed being surrounded by family and friends the last four years, the comfort of all of that might have created some complacency. It’s got him ready for the next challenge.
“The young men need to be shown love and the gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to know that there’s a Father that loves them,” Childs said. “(Delta Streets wants) to present them with the Gospel and share Jesus Christ with them. We love the mission and the goal that the school has. It’s breathtaking how God has moved there in the last seven years.”
Childs heads to Greenwood having taken WA from a 4-24 record his first season to their first winning season in a decade. The Patriots finished with a 16-15 mark and won its first District 2-AAA games since Childs arrived.
While several of the main contributors are now graduating, Childs feels that the foundation has been laid for more big things moving forward for whoever follows.
“It was an honor to be able to take over a program at a school that I grew up at as a young, elementary kid. To be able to come back and be able to coach and teach there, it was special to me,” Childs said. “It’s been a great program in the past and we kind of got back to its original ways. We won four games the first year and we built on that and won 16 games this year. That’s a testament to the kids. The foundation is good right now.”
