Kez McCorvey has a fulfilling job with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). He wasn’t looking to get back into coaching, but his wife, Loris, was encouraging him.
“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. In addition to FCA, a calling he’s enjoyed for eight years, McCorvey accepted another calling as head coach at North Florida Christian School (NFC). It’s the next step back into coaching for the former wide receiver who helped FSU win the 1993 national title.
McCorvey has found success at each step, 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 as well as Middle Tennessee in 2016.
McCorvey gained a desire to learn and a love for the sport from FSU coaches Bobby Bowden and John Eason as well as in pro football where he found, at his core, an enjoyment of 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, ‘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, which is the measuring stick of a program. He didn’t discuss helping NFC’s players earn a college scholarship, instead he reflected on what football has meant to him and what it should mean to high school young men.
“Why you coach football — it’s not for the football,” McCorvey said. “It’s for the relationships and the people. I got a bunch of rings… They sit away, and you don’t ever think about them. You think about the memories and the people.”
McCorvey is among the Seminoles now coaching at the high school or college level in Tallahassee. Florida A&M just hired his collegiate quarterback, 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, while fellow Hall of Fame member Odell Haggins is FSU’s associate head coach. Among the Bowden head coaches across the country, Bill Ragans (Chiles), Kyler Hall (Live Oak Suwannee) and Brian Allen (Lake City Columbia) are doing so close to home.
“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 with a former middle school athlete. Now grown up, he has a wife and kids and a business. There was a sense of pride in hearing how his pupil had emerged with a daily purpose for family and work.
“God used me to impact their life in a way I hope they transition to the rest of their life with some wisdom and better direction,” McCorvey said. “I do love seeing the kids grow…. and seeing their lives change. That’s what you get into it for. I remember the games but more importantly I remember the relationships. When I see those guys, the first thing you do is you don’t say nothing. You just hug.” McCorvey said. “And that’s the part that is precious to me.”
McCorvey hopes to build those relationships at NFC.
“This is the opportunity to have greater memories out in the football field in front of your peers, in front of the whole school and families, to go out and fight and defend your school,” McCorvey said. “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.” 
Bob Ferrante
The Osceola
