North Carolina Football Association (NCFA)

The Pirates Let Edwin Philip Off the Boat

Gastonia has announed the release of head coach Edwin Philip. After going 2-10 then 3-9, ownership didn't feel the turn around they wanted was coming fast enough. Over the past 5 seasons Gastonia's record is 14-46. With Salisbury, Charlotte, and Asheville all regulars in post season play over the past 7 seasons Gastonia's owners are highly motivated to see some sort of improvement in their team. There has been some talk of the current owners shopping the team around or closing shop all together. No one is sure whether a winning season would help cool this talk, but for sure another last place finish in the division won't help.

Philip had come into Gastonia with a good history at Kinston and Gastonia had hoped the winning attitude would help the locker room environment. But Philip has been unable to find any consistancy out of his team and as Asheville seems to be a sure factor for the next few years and Charlotte seems to have improved greatly after being the worst team in the league last season, Gastonia is still a question mark, looking good one week then awful the next.