Coach Chuck Friend is a championship football coach who worked at Columbus Lee, Caledonia, Starkville, Neshoba Central, and Tuscaloosa Central in Alabama. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Coach Friend graduated from West Point High and received his college degree at Mississippi State. He served in the U.S. Navy in active duty in the Vietnam War from 1970 to 1972. His 28- year coaching career began as an assistant at Columbus Lee. He is well known for his head coaching achievements at Neshoba Central, where he led the Rockets to five Mid Mississippi Conference titles, three division crowns and three Class 5A North State championships. At Starkville High, Coach Friend guided the Yellowjackets to three division titles, two North State crowns and back-to-back State football championships in 1994 in Class 4A and 1995 in Class 5A. He coached twice in the Bernard Blackwell Football All-Star Classic as an assistant in 1988 and as head coach in 1995. Coach Friend was also honored by coaching three times in the Mississippi/Alabama All-Star football classic as an assistant in 1993, a head coach in 1996 and as adminisrative coach in 1998. Named Coach of the Year by the MAC and the Jackson Clarion Ledger, he is a longtime MAC member who has spoken frequently at clinics at Ole Miss, Southern Miss, Mississippi State, the MAC and West Alabama, and for Nike in Houston, Texas, national clinic.