Ed Wilson, head football coach at McKinley High School, was named the Buffalo Bills Coach of the Week after leading his Macks to a 36-29 win over Grand Island last weekend.
Sophomore running back Kwame Duah powered the offense as he rushed for a career-high 147 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Duah leads the Macks in rushing.
"He's an elusive, powerful back," Wilson said. "He just continues to fight for yards and has a heart like a bulldog."
McKinley led at the half 36-16 but Grand Island scored twice to close within seven points in the fourth quarter.
McKinley has now won twice after losing their season-opener to Williamsville East.
"We're going to stay level-headed and take this one game at a time," Wilson said. "Some of the teams in our league are pretty good. We have to continue with the same pace that we are on. Just keep playing hard and keep playing smart."
Wilson was thrilled that the Macks beat a playoff team with the win over Grand Island.
"Grand Island is an excellent football team," Wilson said. "For the first time this season, we played hard for four quarters and were focused. We have been preaching to the kids to stay focused. If we play hard for four quarters, we can play with anybody we step on the field with."
This is Wilson's third season with McKinley, his second year as the head varsity coach. He led the Macks to a 4-4 record in 2009. Wilson is also the Senior Army Instructor for the McKinley ROTC program, which is under the Department of Physical Education. He is currently in charge of 130 Junior ROTC Cadets at McKinley.
"We want to teach leadership," Wilson said. "We want to teach our Cadets and motivate them to be better students and better citizens. We do various community service and learning projects. We do things with retirement homes, the Weinberg Campus. We delivered Christmas cards to the V.A. Hospital. We want to make ourselves available to the community in any way that we can."
Wilson was a wide receiver for Vicksburg High School in Mississippi before joining the military in 1984. He served one tour of duty in Iraq.
Wilson hasn't decided what to do with the $1,000 award that comes with the Coach of the Week Award.
"I would like to get the kids some footwear so we aren't all wearing different cleats," he said. "We'll certainly do something for the kids."
This is the 14th consecutive year of the Buffalo Bills High School Football Coach of the Week program. Each week during the 11-week high school football season, a committee appointed by the Buffalo Bills selects a head football coach as Coach of the Week.
The honorees will receive an official certificate from the commissioner of the NFL, plus a Bills Coach of the Week cap and a $1,000 donation to the school's football program from the Buffalo Bills Youth Foundation.
Recognition of the winning coach will be shown on the Buffalo Bills official website (**www.buffalobills.com**). At the end of the season, one of the weekly award winners will be named Coach of the Year and will receive an additional $1,000 donation to the school's football program.
2010 Coach of the Week Winners:
Week 1 - Rich Harris (Kenmore West Blue Devils)
Week 2 - Tom Goddard (Clarence Red Devils)
Week 3 - Ed Wilson (McKinley Macks)
