2019 Catamounts /// Coaching Staff
AL
CHRIS
ASSISTANT RB COACH (WESTERN CAROLINA, 2017)
ASSISTANT WR COACH (WESTERN CAROLINA, 1993)
Following in the footsteps of his late father – Western Carolina Hall of Famer, Al “Mutt” DeGraffenreid – Al Degraffenreid is a Catamount legacy and has been a staple around Cullowhee and WCU Athletics for much of his life.
Chris Brookshire has an extensive resume as a coach and an educator spanning 25 years of service. A Western North Carolina native, Brookshire rejoined the WCU football coaching staff during the spring of 2019 after coaching at nearby Mars Hill University where he worked with the fullbacks and tight ends in 2018.
DEGRAFFENREID BROOKSHIRE
After spending two years as a football student assistant coach, Al – a Cullowhee native and a 2017 graduate of Western Carolina with a degree in sociology – moved into the offensive quality control role entering the 2017 season. In 2019, DeGraffenreid assumed the role of assistant running backs coach. He is involved in aiding film study, game breakdowns, and assistant the offensive coaches on game days.
His first stint with the Catamount football program came as an offensive quality control role on Mark Speir’s staff in 2014 -15 before he returned to the high school coaching ranks at Smoky Mountain High in Sylva. Brookshire played a major role in turning around Smoky Mountain’s football fortune. The Mustangs had not had a winning season in over 17 years (1999-2016) before a 7-5 mark in 2016. Over his two years at the helm, Smoky Mountain ranked among the most explosive offense in the mountains, breaking every school record in that span.
DeGraffenreid is also active in the social media work publicizing the Catamount football team, as well as with camps. While an undergraduate, DeGraffenreid worked as a student manager with the Catamount men’s basketball team. A graduate of Smoky Mountain High in Sylva, DeGraffenreid was a defensive back and wide receiver as a prep, earning an All-Appalachian Athletic Conference selection for the Mustangs in 2009. He was also part of their 2-A Western Regional runner-up basketball team. DeGraffenreid originally committed to play college football for Fayetteville State before returning to finish his degree at WCU. DeGraffenreid’s older sister, Cetera, was a girls’ basketball standout at Smoky Mountain HS before playing collegiately at North Carolina. His mother, Pam, works on campus in Cullowhee as the supervisor of the WCU Bookstore.
2019 CATAMOUNT FOOTBALL
Brookshire’s coaching experience includes a head coaching stop at Erwin High in Asheville for five seasons, guiding the program to a playoff appearance in 2006 – the school’s first in a four-year span. While at Erwin, he coached WCU’s current offensive line coach, John Holt. Brookshire was also the head coach at John Battle High in Bristol, Va., in 2008. Brookshire starred as a receiver and defensive back at Tuscola High School in Waynesville, N.C., before earning a football scholarship to Wingate. Brookshire transferred to Western Carolina where earned Academic All-Southern Conference honors in track and field as a sprinter. He graduated from WCU in 1993. Brookshire and his wife, the former Heather Silver, have two children, Tanner and Taylor Grace.
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