Kez McCorvey has a fulfilling job, working for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He wasn’t looking to get back into coaching.

But his wife, Loris, was encouraging him. And McCorvey didn’t view the chance to coach at North Florida Christian as a job.

“It was put in a way to where I felt like it was a calling and not a job,” McCorvey said. “I don't know if I'm looking for a job, but I am looking for a calling. And so it felt like a calling.”

Coaching keeps calling McCorvey back again. He will retain his job with FCA, one he’s held for eight years, while also taking over at North Florida Christian in April. It’s the next step back into coaching for McCorvey, a wide receiver who helped FSU win the 1993 national title.

McCorvey has found success at each step in coaching, including Canadian Football League titles as an assistant with Toronto (2012) and Edmonton (2015) as well as a state title as an assistant with North Florida Christian (2018). He also spent time at Bethel (Tenn.) University, running the weight room at all hours and preparing receivers for practice, as well as a year with Middle Tennessee's receivers in 2016.

As McCorvey soaked up knowledge about football, learning from FSU coaches like Bobby Bowden and John Eason to coaches in pro football, it showed his desire to learn as well as love of the sport. But also how much, at his core, he enjoys the instruction and relationships.

“I feel like when I was at Florida State, I was a coach,” McCorvey said. “I had the ability to see and learn and process. … I feel like I've always been coaching. That's my natural slant. If you ask me, ‘Kez, what's your natural ability?’ Teacher. I explain, I show, I analyze. And so that's a part of who I am.”

In an interview with the Osceola, McCorvey didn’t discuss wins — let alone district titles or playoff success — although that is often the measuring stick of any program. He didn’t discuss helping NFC’s players earn a college scholarship, although he has contributed to the football journeys of a number of high school athletes.

He reflected on what football has meant to him and what it should mean to high school men.

“Why you coach football — it's not for the football itself,” McCorvey said. “It's for the relationships and the people that you're around. I got a bunch of rings. … They sit away. And you don’t ever think about them anymore. You think about the memories and the people.”

McCorvey is among a number of Seminoles through the decades who are coaching at the high school or college level in Tallahassee. Florida A&M just hired Charlie Ward as its men’s basketball coach, and the school also employs FSU graduates James Colzie (football) and Jamey Shouppe (baseball) as head coaches. An FSU athletics Hall of Fame pitcher, Bryan Henry, is now the Tallahassee State College baseball coach.

Countless Bowden alumni players are coaching around the country, including Bill Ragans (Chiles), Kyler Hall (Live Oak Suwannee), Brian Allen (Lake City Columbia) and Odell Haggins (FSU’s associate head coach).

“Coach Bowden set a good picture for what successful football looks like,” said McCorvey, who also credits Eason (FSU’s receivers coach in the 1990s) and Mickey Andrews (FSU’s defensive coordinator from 1984-2009) as coaches who showed him how to relate to their players as people.

McCorvey shared a story of a recent lunch he had with one of his former athletes from middle school. Now grown up, he had a wife, kids and is running a business. There was a sense of pride in hearing how his pupil had emerged as an adult with a daily purpose for his family and work.

“God used me to impact their life in a way that I hope that they transition to the rest of their life with some wisdom and some better direction,” McCorvey said. “… I do love seeing the kids grow. I love seeing them five years later, 10 years later. And seeing their lives change. That’s what you get into it for. I remember the games too as well. But more important I remember the relationships.

“When I see those guys, and the first thing you do is you don't say nothing. You just hug. And that's the part that is precious to me.”

McCorvey hopes to build some of those same relationships at North Florida Christian. His next few weeks will be full with hiring assistant coaches and welcoming back athletes for the start of 20 days of spring practice on May 1.

He reflects on the purpose of high school football, not one where the goal is to earn a college scholarship but to create a lifetime of friendships and memories.

“This is the opportunity to be able to have greater memories out in the football field, in front of your peers, in front of the whole school and families right here, to go out there and fight and defend your school,” McCorvey said. “You're going to want that. When you are 53 like I am, you're going to want that.

"I have great memories of us spending time together, and they're going to want that, and I want them to have that memory for the rest of their life.”

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