Just a couple of months ago, Devin Wilson was preparing for the 2020 NAL season and his team, the Jacksonville Sharks, looking to win back-to-back league championships.
But with the NAL’s 2020 season being canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the star receiver has switched gears and joined the football coaching staff at Andrew Jackson High School. Wilson will serve as the school’s new receivers’ coach for the 2020 season.
For Wilson, who was looking forward to another standout season with the Sharks, the shift is less than ideal.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t upset a little about [the season being canceled], but I have trust in the NAL, and that hopefully, we have the right people in the right position to make these decisions,” says Wilson, adding that he had “extremely high expectations for the 2020 season.”
Wilson’s move to accept a position at Jackson – and more specifically, to stay in Jacksonville – makes it highly likely that he’ll be back with the Sharks in 2021.
Last season, Wilson played in 14 games for the Sharks, scoring 29 touchdowns and topping both the 100-catch and 1,000-yard marks as a first-team All-NAL receiver. He has won two championships with the team – one in 2017, and the other in 2019. He spent the 2018 season with the now-defunct Maine Mammoths.
As a new coach, Wilson says he looks forward to “learning and seeing the game from a different perspective.”
“I hope my love for the game can rub off onto my players,” he adds.
Wilson’s tenure as a high-school football coach is set to begin when Jackson’s first game kicks off in mid-August, barring any delays or cancellations due to COVID-19.
