From player to head coach: Caleb Walls leads Dr. Phillips football team into a new era

Caleb Walls, the newest head coach of Dr. Phillips’ storied football team, remembers the feeling of stepping on the field in his Panthers’ gear under Friday night lights. 

He spent three years on the varsity football team, spending summers, early mornings and late afternoons training under the guidance of head coach Rodney Wells. 

Walls spent a year with the team that fought all the way to the state championship game but had its dreams of a title crushed. Those years prepared him to become a wide receiver at Keiser University, where he became the first player in the school’s history to return a kick for an 89-yard touchdown. 

When Walls stepped back into Dr. Phillips’ locker room four years ago after graduating college, it felt as if nothing changed. The walls of the locker room remained painted in black and blue, the jerseys and the weight room brought him back to when he was training as a young athlete. And most important, he knew the expectations.

“To be around that, I think that’s what made me fall back in love with it because it was like, ‘Man, I missed this so much,’” he said. “But now leading it and being a part of it again is the greatest thing ever.” 

In that moment, Walls realized he never wanted to leave and now — four years later — he won’t. 

Walls was hired as DP’s newest football head coach following Wells’ announcement he was stepping away from the football sidelines. His journey all began from a gas station run-in. 

Walls didn’t plan on returning to his old stomping grounds in his adulthood.

But it all changed when Walls’ dad, Herkie Walls, ran into Wells at a gas station four years ago. Wells told Herkie Walls to invite Caleb Walls to come out and help with the receivers during the summer workouts. 

So he went. 

During those summer workouts, Walls found purpose. He felt an instant spark inside of himself as he helped current players become the best version of themselves. Wells asked Walls to join the coaching staff as a wide receivers coach, and he never looked back. 

“I’ve showed up every day since,” Walls said. “I was a receiver coach for the last three years, just working with the different kids, interacting with the kids, getting close with them, building relationships. What God called me to do was to help these kids and try and get them to the next level. Get them to places I’ve never been before.” 

CONTINUING A LEGACY 

Walls always has looked up to Wells since he first stepped on the field as a Panther. 

“Everything I do in my every day life as a father, as a husband, as a coach, was to represent what Coach Wells did because that’s what I saw growing up,” Walls said. “(I) just have been mirroring what he did and following the steps he did as far as the standard he set here.”

The pair went from a coach and player relationship to a brother, coworker and family relationship. 

“That relationship me and him have, he has that with over thousands of kids that he’s been with in the 24 years he’s been coaching around and that’s inspiring,” Walls said. “And I want that … that’s the beauty of the whole thing, as far as the head coach job and the role, it’s not stressful because of the staff I have and the guys I have around me. 

“I want to get Dr. Phillips not back to where it used to be but keep it at that standard of being excellent,” he said. 

During his time as a Panther from 2014 to 2017, he played on the 2016 state runners-up team and with some incredible names in DP’s history, including Robert Porcher, Tanner Ingel, Nick Smith, Emare Hogan and DJ Charles. Many of those players have gone to the highest level, and combining their skills as a player with the lessons they learned from playing in the state championship is the blueprint for DP. 

Walls has brought in Robert Porcher, Hogan and Bart Bryant, who all played in the state championship, to come back and coach. 

“We’ve done it,” he said. “We’ve been there, so we know what it takes to get there. We (have) coaches that were part of the state championship team that won, so they know what it takes and having the right group of guys. I just want the best interest for the kids.” 

And the players have bought into Walls and the other staff members’ new titles. They haven’t left after the legendary Wells, who has put hundreds of players into college football and in the NFL, left. 

“Some guys may not want to risk or take the chance on a 27-year-old coach,” Walls said. “But the guys (who) are here, they’re all-in, and I think that speaks volumes. The guys (who) are in this locker room, (who) are in this weight room (who) are grinding as much as we are — they’re here to stay.” 

Those are players that Walls seeks. He wants athletes who are there to win, who are all-in. Walls not only has learned from Wells but also his college coach, Doug Socha, and his strength coach, David Padilla. 

Both Socha and Padilla taught him to fall in love with the process of working out as well as how the weight room, strength and conditioning, and speed and agility all are intertwined together when he played at Keiser. Without one, the other areas will lack. 

Those coaches and Wells taught Walls one of the most important lessons in football, “You can’t cheat the game.” 

“You have to put in the work if you want to be great,” Walls said. “That’s what I pulled from them. But that’s not even just talking about football. That’s life. If you want something, you have to work for it. So (I’m) just taking those things, those little nuggets they gave me and now I can pour it into this next generation.” 

Without his coaches’ lessons, he never would have developed his fascination with football that led him to where he is now. 

FINDING PURPOSE

Herkie Walls, who had played football at the University of Texas before playing four years in the NFL and also coaching as an assistant at DP, introduced Walls to football when he was 4 years old. 

Through the grind of football, he fell in love with training and went to Keiser University as a wide receiver while also pursuing his degree in sports medicine and fitness technology. Even during COVID-19, he curated personalized training plans for each of his family members after all the gyms closed. Following graduation, Walls worked as a personal trainer at Esporta Fitness and did that job for about a year, until Wells offered him the coaching position. 

After taking his stance on the sidelines, Walls also took a position at DP as the Health and Opportunities through Physical Education teacher. 

“I always wanted to coach, once I got here and the opportunity presented itself, I fell in love with (coaching football) way better than working at Esporta, because now I affect more lives and relate to the kids and that was the thing that sold me,” he said. 

Outside of football, he also accepted a position as dean at Dr. Phillips this school year. He works with the general student population every day to make each student the best version of themselves. 

Throughout the whole journey, Walls has found his new purpose in life — to develop young players. He wants them not to have regrets about their high school years.