By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

First of two parts on new Davie football head coach Brian Hinson.
David Bennett’s press conference following Coastal Carolina’s season-opening win over Furman in 2011 is the stuff of legend. The 60-second clip about cats and dogs went around the world. It was bonkers, absolutely bonkers, and it has attracted millions of views on YouTube.
So it seemed only fitting to ask Bennett what kind of dog Davie High hired last week as its new football coach.
“Davie hired a dog, but he’s got just enough cat in him,” said Bennett, who coached Brian Hinson at Catawba and had him on his staff at Coastal Carolina for several years. “Yeah, he’s got a little bit of cat, but he’s mostly a dog. He’s a German Shepherd. He’ll come up and start lickin’ you.”
Brian Hinson, 47, was hired to replace Tim Devericks as head coach. In his first head coaching job, Hinson brought comet-like success to East Rowan from 2007-09. After spending seven years as an assistant coach at Catawba College, Hinson breathed fresh life into Salisbury and transformed the Hornets into a juggernaut, going 47-15 from 2017-21 and guiding them to 2AA runner-up in 2019 and to the 2AA state championship in the covid-delayed spring season of 2021.
Then he took on a daunting challenge at West Cabarrus, inheriting an 0-10 team and pushing the Wolverines to 5-6 two years later in 2024, including the first playoff win in the program’s five-year history.
“Everybody makes a big deal about (Bennett’s cats-and-dogs video),” Hinson said. “Somebody from the New York Times called Kevin Brown, who was the quarterback that I played with at Catawba and also coached for Bennett, one day after that happened and said: ‘Tell me about this.’ Kevin said: ‘Well, first of all, that’s just a typical Monday with coach Bennett. That’s just an everyday thing.’ You see something like that, it’s going to make you chuckle. I’ve been blessed to have a great father in my life, an unbelievable dad. But next to him, coach Bennett is probably the second-most influential man in my life, and he’s one of the biggest reasons that I’m coaching. The biggest thing I learned from coach Bennett is just be who you are and be real. My first practice ever at Salisbury, he said: ‘Tell them you love them.’ I know that sounds crazy, but you spend so much time with these young kids – trying to shape them, make them better people and teach them life lessons – and you’re going to build relationships and start to care about them. Coach Bennett said: ‘Don’t hide your feelings. Love them and let them know it.’ Unfortunately for some of them, I might be the only man to ever say it to them.”
Raised in Montgomery County, Hinson grew up with three older brothers in the small town of Star. Not only was he a three-sport athlete at East Montgomery, he was the president of his senior class and an excellent student. He played baseball as a freshman and sophomore. East Montgomery didn’t add wrestling until Hinson’s junior year, and he wrestled as a senior.
But football was his thing. One Friday night in 1994, Catawba offensive line coach Jamie Snider came to scout a 6-1, 250-pound lineman. To Snider’s delight, he found out Hinson was actually 6-4, 270.
“The funny thing is, I was not overly recruited by Catawba,” Hinson said. “Being from a little 1-A high school, I think they kind of knew about me, but I think they thought I was a lot smaller than what I really was, and my mom made calls. My mom ended up being my agent. They had an official visit weekend and they invited me, but they didn’t invite me on an official visit. They just invited me to come and work out. It was an unofficial visit. When I walked in the door, I was a lot bigger than they expected, and then I tested well. By the end of the visit, they were trying to get me to stay for the official visit. They were like: ‘Hey, we’re going to put you in a hotel room. We’re taking you to dinner.’ Jamie Snider had come to watch me play, but I’d never met him and everything really happened whenever I went on that visit. My dad’s a preacher, so we couldn’t spend the night because it was a Saturday night. We had to be at church on Sunday morning, but after that visit, everything fell into place.”
Bennett could sell refrigerators to Eskimos, and it didn’t take him long to convince Hinson that Catawba was the right place for him. He was a part of Bennett’s first recruiting class.
“I remember whenever I showed up at school, in the Chief’s Room, I didn’t know who the head coach was,” Hinson said. “There was a guy sitting in there with his legs crossed – you know, like ladies cross their legs. The older you get, that’s just what you do sometimes because I do it now. I was like: ‘Who is this strange bird?’ A couple of hours later, I’m meeting with that guy in his office and he’s the head coach. You know, the Lord works in mysterious ways. I’ve been blessed to be around coach Bennett.”
“His dad’s a big-time preacher, country preacher,” Bennett said. “When we talked about God and family and him getting his degree before we said anything about football, his mom looked around and said: ‘I think this is where my son needs to be.’”
Hinson helped set the foundation for Bennett’s legendary run at Catawba (63-17 record). After redshirting in 1995, he was a freshman starter on the offensive line in 1996, when Catawba won the South Atlantic Conference championship. He would start at left tackle all four years. In 1999, the Indians went 11-2, both losses coming from national runner-up Carson-Newman, including 28-25 in the second round of the playoffs.
Hinson made the All-SAC team three times (1997-99). He won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy in 1999 as the top o-lineman in the SAC, becoming the first Indian to win that award. He was an AFCA All-American in 1998 and 1999. He capped his playing career in the Snow Bowl All-Star Game in Fargo, North Dakota. He was named Catawba’s male athlete of the year in 1999-00 and graduated with a physical education degree. He achieved immortality by getting inducted in the Catawba Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
“He wasn’t a big ol’ bulky guy,” Bennett said. “Brian was an athletic lineman. Brian could have played tight end. He was so smart and knew leverage and knew angles and how to use his strength.”
As fate would have it, Hinson did his student-teaching at Davie in the spring semester of the 1999-00 school year. He fondly remembers Davie’s football staff being as tight as they come. He assisted Mike Herndon in baseball that season.
“They wanted me to work with a sport of some kind, and since I was with Mike in PE, they wanted me to help with baseball,” he said. “One of my biggest jobs was trying to steal signs at first base, and then I’d throw balls in the dirt that (catcher) Drew Ridenhour blocked. So that was about the best I could offer. They didn’t have a uniform big enough for me, so I didn’t look smart. I grew up playing baseball, so it was fun. It was a good experience. It’s part of the reason that I’ve had a sweet spot for Davie County. I really enjoyed being around those guys. I had the chance to be around Doug Illing, Devore Holman, Mike Herndon, Mike Lovelace, Buddy Lowery – just to name a few of those guys – and they welcomed me in with open arms. I saw the camaraderie, the friendships and the cohesion that they had together. They kind of shaped me for my future.”
Brian and wife Shanna have two daughters – Elinor, a senior at West Cabarrus, and Elsie, an eighth grader who plays five sports.
“Her favorite is probably volleyball,” he said. “Right now she’s doing basketball. She’s going to do soccer and track at the end of the year. She’s also done cross country.”
When the Davie job came open in early January, Hinson salivated and Shanna encouraged him to apply. Living in Salisbury, his family will not have to relocate.
“My wife and I are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary next month,” he said. “We dated for several years before that, but I’ve talked about Davie County for 27 years and she reminded me of it. She said: ‘If you don’t apply for it, I’m going to smack you because I’ve heard you talk about it for 27 years.’
“The community takes a whole lot of pride in Davie County High School and all the sports. It’s the only school in the system. When you think about having three middle schools, we should have 15 offensive linemen coming to us every year or two, 9-12 defensive linemen and three running backs. So you start thinking about the kids that you should have access to.”
Hinson will continue working at West Cabarrus for a few weeks before starting at Davie in March.
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Hinson to Davie County High School as our new head football coach and physical education teacher,” Davie principal Michael Pruitt said. “Coach Hinson’s leadership, passion for the game and commitment to developing young men both on and off the field will be a tremendous asset to our school and community. We look forward to the future of War Eagle football under his leadership.”
People who have played for him and coached with him consider Hinson the complete package. The War Eagles will see a demanding side. They will meet a master motivator. And then there’s charisma and personality to spare.
“Brian’s a unique guy,” Bennett said. “It’s hard to describe Brian. He’s an athletic Drew Carey is who he is.”
Next week: Part 2 on Brian Hinson.