Prior to selling real estate, Eric Andrews coached Northwood Chargers Football and taught History at Northwood High School in Pittsboro! Eric really loves coaching and Northwood in general. In this video, Eric explains how he obtained the job at Northwood and how he got into real estate and eventually land sales. Many teachers and students at Northwood use Eric to buy or sell their homes to this day. Eric may even return to coaching one day!
Speaker 1: What are some things people should know about Northwood High School?
Speaker 2: Northwood High School is why I am doing real estate here. I was managing some jewelry stores in the Raleigh Chapel Hill area, and I was working all the time. And the woman that I was dating at the time said, “If you could do whatever you wanted to do, what would you do?” And I said, “Teach history and coach football.” And so she said, “Well, that’s what you should do.” And so I drove around to some area high schools and I met the athletic director.
He was mowing grass himself at the fields at Northwood. And it was actually the first school I walked into, and he said, “What the hell do you want?” There was a guy named Jim Pappas. He’s still around. He is a good guy. And I said, “I want to teach history and coach football.” And he said, “Hell, you’re big enough. Sure. We’ll hire you.”
That’s just how things work. I had a four year degree, but I didn’t have teaching certification, and sure enough, they got me a job and I was coaching football there. And it was a great, great experience. Brian Harrington, the head coach now, helped me and taught me a lot. Bill Hall, who was the head coach for a long time. He’s a good friend and client of mine. Mike Rivet was the head coach for a while, and Jim Pappas. And so I constantly get referred to, still. I coached for about 14, 15 years and people still call me Coach Andrews. And I only taught for about five or six years at Northwood. I coached for a little bit longer than that. Both my kids, right now, I have my son is a rising senior, and my daughter is a rising sophomore. That school has its issues like any other school. They’ve had good teachers and bad teachers. I certainly-
Speaker 1: They still hire people the same way?
Speaker 2: It sounds real loosey goosey or whatever, but there’s actually a state program called lateral entry for people that have a teachable four year degree. And there is a statewide shortage of teachers, and there’s nationwide shortage of teachers. And what you do is you sign up and you say, “I agree to get my teaching certification as I’m working here.” So yeah, they still have lateral entry. I love teaching there. I mean, I wish I made more money at it, but the coaching was phenomenal. Both Harrington, Pappas, and Hall were clients of mine. So many players have been clients of mine.
The assistant principal is now transferring to Avery. He was a fellow social studies teacher while I was there. And he was the assistant principal. And we just put his house under contract in a day, just last week or the week before. Our firm has Dr. B’s house listed now. He’s transferred and everything. So I mean, it’s a source of business, but it’s such a great, great community school. My kids have been involved in sports there. I was involved in coaching there. The single most important thing I could tell somebody is they’re like, “When you were a teacher there, what was the greatest indicator of whether or not a student would be successful in your class?” And it certainly wasn’t race. It certainly wasn’t economic background. It wasn’t whether or not they were from a broken home or living with just mom or dad, or if they had both parents there. The single greatest factor was, were their parents involved?
And if their parents were involved, those were good kids and they got good grades. Northwood is certainly doing better than it used to academically, and I think it will continue to improve. I think so many of those UNC Medical faculty and professors from the university are now living in Chatham county, and they’re a part of our school district, and I think that they have high standards. But it’s really whether or not the parents are involved in their kids’ education for them to make something out of it.
My business partner’s daughter got into Duke this year. She was first in her class at Northwood. We had the scholarship athletic awards and the academic awards. And there are kids going to schools all across this state, all across this country. I think Northwood’s going to be well represented in the colleges and universities coming up next year. So it is a school that is a part of our community. Our firm does a lot of advertising and marketing with them, but it’s not just about that. It is good people working there, and it’s good kids that are going there.
Speaker 1: How did you go from coaching to selling real estate?
Speaker 2: The person that I was married to at the time was a real estate attorney. And this place was just starting to grow so quick. And she said, “Just get your real estate license on the side and supplement our income a little bit.” And it just took off. It just took off. I gave up the teaching, but I didn’t give up the coaching, and I coached for another eight, ten years. And then once my kids got involved in sports, I had to give up the coaching as well. I think once my kids get through high school, I might want to return to coaching. It’s one of those things where you give a little, and it gives back to you so much more. And I think one of the best honors any kid can give you is to call you coach. And I still have kids, if I’m on the sidewalk downtown, they yell out, “Coach Andrews!” And it’s a good place.