People in our area seem super excited about the new volleyball and football coach hires.
“I’m beyond excited to become the volleyball head coach,” Makayla Dalton, math teacher, said. “I look forward to sharing my knowledge and love with my players and in the game. I want to make sure each player walks away with more passion and love for the game at the end.
“One thing I want to change from last year would be having a better mindset when faced with difficulty,” Dalton said. “The team really struggled with last year, and it really impacted my players. I really wanted to become a coach at a young age because I grew up playing volleyball. I’ve always liked the concept of volleyball because it brought so much joy into my life,” Dalton said.
“Next year at CHS, I’ll be the advanced PE teacher,” Matt Allen, future advanced CHS PE teacher. “I currently am a social studies teacher at Altavista High, and in the past I’ve been a math and social studies teacher at Chatham Middle and Buckingham County High. I’m beyond excited to be the football head coach. I was the varsity head coach here before from 2016 to 2019. I loved my time here in Chatham and am extremely happy to be back.
“One major thing I want to accomplish is to build young people through the game of football,” Allen said. “My goal for the Chatham football program is to make our players better men, better sons, better brothers, better husbands, and better people through everything we do in our program and to make an impact in their lives that lasts for the next forty years not just the next four. I know that’s a pretty lofty goal, but it is, ultimately, why I coach.
“I wasn’t here last year, but I know from talking to several people, the experience may not have been the best for everyone,” Dalton said. “My job, immediately, is to improve that in 2026. I played seven years of football including four in high school and one in college. I actually preferred baseball until I got coached by my high school head coach, Craig Gill. I got the opportunity to play for him for four years, have him as a PE teacher all four years in high school, and ultimately work for him for six years as well as an assistant. I coach football because of the impact that Coach Gill had in my life, and the impact I saw him have in hundreds of other kids lives in Buckingham and North Carolina.”
