On the surface, it seemed as though Chris Amill had every reason to return to Youngstown Chaney for the 2022 season.

Amill had guided the Cowboys program beginning in 2019 when football returned to the school following a nine-year hiatus. The Cowboys enjoyed immediate success, going 6-4 in their first year back, including three straight wins to close the season.

Chaney (3-6) won a playoff game in 2020, then last year finished 4-5 despite suffering a rash of early-season injuries.

A roster loaded with talent and experience was returning this fall. Most coaches would have seized the opportunity to stick with a now-established program.

Amill found it to be an opportunity to move on.

“I think that if the circumstances were different, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving the Chaney program that I absolutely love,” Amill said. “If I felt like there was a ton of work to do in terms of still building the program, I probably would have stayed put.

“I felt like the program was on the right track. We had established something in a short period of time. There are a lot of players on that roster who are on the right path, both on the football field and in life. A foundation was laid.”

So, rather than stick with a possible sure thing, Amill chose the unenviable task to once again start from scratch. Last November Amill accepted an offer to kickstart a football program at Corvian Community School, a public charter school in Charlotte, North Carolina. Football was being introduced to the five-year-old school for the first time this fall.

Last Friday, Amill guided Corvian (1-2) to its first-ever win – a 19-14 road victory over Lake Norman.

“It was such a special moment,” Amill said. “Every day, we practice punts, field goals and the victory formation. When we got into that victory formation, I don’t think our kids knew how to act.

“When the game was over, there really was no speech I could give to fit the moment. I just told our players to run over to their families, their friends, their classmates and soak it all in.”

Amill said the victory was especially rewarding because the vast majority of his players were experiencing their first-ever win on a football field.

Corvian’s 31-man roster is void of players who had any varsity experience prior to this season. Just three players had played junior varsity ball, and just six players had participated in any form of football over the past two years.

Amill noted that he realized he was “literally introducing some of these players to the game of football” the first time he brought his team onto the practice field.

“I told our guys to line up on the hash marks, and they are literally asking us, ‘what’s a hash mark,'” Amill said. “We had to start off with the very basics of football. We had to teach the difference between a kickoff return and a punt return. We had to teach the captains the basics of the pregame coin toss.”

“Luckily for us, our players didn’t come in with bad habits because most hadn’t played enough football to develop bad habits. They came in and trusted us. And we were fortunate to have had spring ball, which kind of served as an introduction to football for many of our players.”

In addition to his youthful roster, Amill is also dealing with the reality of coaching in a state where basketball is king. Many of Corvian’s best athletes play basketball year-round. In fact, Amill is resigned to the reality that some of his own top players are more dedicated to the hardwood than the gridiron.

“We’ve had some players miss practice because of basketball camps or AAU,” Amill said. “There’s a huge difference between high school football in Northeast Ohio and here. In Northeast Ohio, football is real. Kids play football in Ohio because it’s their life.

“Here, you have those who are truly dedicated to the sport, but overall it’s a baseketball state. We’re trying to bring that Youngstown football mindset to Corvian.”

Amill is also introducing his team to the physical, pounding-style of football which he has been a part of his entire life. Amill played under Don Bucci at Youngstown Cardinal Mooney, then served as an assistant coach at Mooney for 15 years.

“We’re definitely trying to bring Bucci ball to Corvian,” Amill said. “The smash-mouth football played in Youngstown is completely different from what you see here.”

Amill also reconnected with his roots when it came time to assemble his staff of assistant coaches, which includes Youngstown native and Mooney graduate Andre Jackson.

Jackson, whose son attends Corvian, was actually approached by the school’s athletic director and asked to start the football program. Jackson recommended Amill “and the AD pretty much did a google search on me and offered me the job,” Amill said.

Dana Friendly, another Youngstown native who played at Rayen, is also part of the staff. So too is Chris Evans, Amill’s college roommate. The staff includes other longtime friends.

“It’s just crazy how this all worked out,” Amill said. “In the past some of these guys brought their sons up to Youngstown to attend our camps. Now I’m down here coaching their team.

“The guys on my staff are my best friends. They are uncles to my sons. Their sons are my nephews. We are family. This entire program is family.”

And while football has taken Amill out of Youngstown, it hasn’t taken Youngstown out of Amill. He remains in close contact with Chaney coach Seth Antram and says that the Cowboys “have no bigger fan than me.”

“It’s no surprise this team is 4-0 right now, this team has worked their butts off to be in this position,” Amill said. “I still talk to them, I still follow them, I’m still proud of them and I love them like my own. And Seth is one of my best friends, I’m so proud of what he is doing.

“No matter where I’m at, a part of me is always going to be in Youngstown.”

Amill said he is working with Chaney to schedule a game which would bring Corvian to Youngstown to play the Cowboys.