GIBSONVILLE — Eastern Guilford athletics director Randall Hackett was searching for someone with previous football head coaching experience to fill the school’s void.

He found his choice with David Hines.

Hines was introduced as the Wildcats new football coach Monday. He spent three seasons as the head coach at Southside High School in Chocowinity before spending the last two seasons as offensive coordinator at Cherokee.

“I’ve had my eye in this area for a long time. Something about this program kept jumping out to me,” Hines said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be selected to lead this program.”

Hines takes over a program that finished 6-6 last season with a 39-0 first-round, state-playoff loss to Northern Guilford in the playoffs. Hines replaces Scott Loosemore, who resigned after the season following six years on the job.

Hackett entered the search with the objective to hire a someone with a head coaching background because of recent history.

“We were looking for a head coach, or somebody who had had head coach experience because we have been through several head coaches in the last several years who had not been a head coach before being a coach here,” Hackett said.

That experience doesn’t necessarily translate into success.

Hines piled up a 5-27 record in three seasons at Southside. Besides other teams, Hines faced obstacles with eligibility and establishing a tradition.

In the season after Hines moved on to Cherokee, Southside won nine games and advanced to the third round of the playoffs.

“My record down there was not great. I took over a program with a lot of ineligibility,” Hines said. “By the time I left, we had built it up.”

Hines said he prefers to run a triple-option attack on offense, similar to what Wofford runs on the college level in the Southern Conference.

“We’ll spread the field. We’ll spread them out to run it up the middle and we’ll bring them tight to throw it outside and run it outside,” Hines said. “We’ll be competitive, disciplined and fun to watch.”

The new coach wants to be a presence in the community, and outlined what he believes a football team’s role should be.

“The community involvement is something huge for me,” Hines said. “The more you can get the community to back the program as a whole, the more the students, faculty and community feel they have some responsibility in maintaining what everybody gets going.”

Hines had the chance to meet with some players individually Monday before meeting with the team later in the day. Because Cherokee is on springbreak this week, Hines has time to acclimate himself with the area.

“It’s been an awesome experience (Monday), being around and meeting the kids one-on-one throughout the day and then actually sitting down with them in a meeting and seeing their expressions and excitement,” Hines said. “I’m going to go to the baseball game (tonight). I’m going to get as much as I can while I’m here.”

Hines is also the baseball coach at Cherokee, where he’ll finish the season before looking to the area for a place to move his family.