New Choctaw Central coach Steve Cheatham, shown talking with an official during a game against Holmes Community College during the 2008 season, has coached at Philadelphia High and Neshoba Central in addition to East Central Community College.

    Choctaw Central didn’t have to look far for its new football coach.

    After the Choctaw Tribal Schools decided in December to not bring Paul Killen back for a third season, the Warriors’ next coach just happened to be working within the school system. On Tuesday, Steve Cheatham was named Choctaw Central’s new head coach.

    Cheatham, a former Philadelphia High, Neshoba Central and East Central Community College head coach, is currently teaching and coaching at Conehatta Elementary School.

    “His resume kind of speaks for itself,” Choctaw Central athletic director Walter Wilson said. “Steve was working at the elementary school and we felt that he was the right guy for the job.”

    Added Cheathem, who did help with the Warriors last year: “It’s a difficult situation. Paul is a good friend of mine and a dadgum good coach. I wish he was still coaching and I was still helping him out.

    “But they were going to make a change whether I took the job or not, and I just felt it was better for me to take it than have a new guy come in. But Paul is still a good friend of mine and we still talk every day.”

    Cheatham guided Philadelphia’s program from 1997-2000, compiling a 35-11 record. After serving as Director of Football Operations at Ole Miss, Cheatham took over the Neshoba Central program in 2005 and guided the Rockets to a 5-15 mark in two years.

    Following a one-year stint as East Central’s offensive coordinator, Cheatham took over the reigns of the Warriors in 2008 before resigning in July 2009 due to health reasons.

    “Spending a year away from it, made me really appreciate it,” said Cheatham, who first underwent surgery for prostate cancer and then suffered first-degree and second-degree burns while cleaning up family property in August, even spending a few days in a burn center in Augusta, Ga. “I’m rejuvenated and renewed.

    “I’m excited and I kind of feel like Brett Favre. Everybody wants to know why he keeps coming back, well it is tough to give it up.”

    Wins have been tough to come by in recent years for the Warriors. Last year’s 5-6 finish was Choctaw’s eighth straight losing season. The Warriors’ last winning season was an 8-2 mark in 1998. Killen was 6-15 in two years at Choctaw.

    Still, Cheatham believes change is possible for the Warriors.

    “The administration is committed to getting this thing turned around, to get it back to the glory days of the ’90s,” he said. I really think that we can get back to that. There are some things that need to change, and even Paul would tell you that there were things needed changing and it’s stuff we had talked about.

    “The kids want to be part of that. The kids are hungry for that, they are hungry for success and hungry for leadership.”

    Part of that change will come in offensive style. Gone will be the spread system the Warriors ran last season. In its place will be a power running attack that Cheatham is hopeful will help the Warriors turn the tide on some tough losses.

    Finishing 1-4 in Division 5-3A, the Warriors suffered a 28-19 loss to Kemper County, a 35-32 defeat to Southeast Lauderdale and a 30-23 setback against Clarkdale in consecutive weeks.

    “We’re going to try and get away from some of those long games,” Cheatham said. “If we’ve got a close game in the fourth, we can hopefully run the clock, control the clock and turn around some of those close losses with some things that perhaps the spread didn’t allow us to do.

    “It was so tough to have those type of losses because the kids worked so hard.”

    Cheatham, though, knows all about tough setbacks with the health issues that hit last summer. Now, though, he is ready to use those situations to help the Warriors.

    “It shook me in the beginning,” Cheatham said. “We all like to believe our faith is good. Well, my faith got shook. But after making some decisions, like stepping away from coaching, it made me stronger.

    “I feel stronger because I believe I have a powerful message to tell kids about going through adversity. And that’s what it is all about, helping kids. It’s not about winning games. I want to win as much as the next guy, but my job is to change kids’ lives and that is what I want to be remembered for — helping others.”