Robbinsville football coach Dee Walsh announces his retirement

Legend will end his career with 14 North Carolina football state championships
Robbinsville head coach, Dee Walsh, huddles with his team following their win at Murphy, October 6, 2023.
Robbinsville head coach, Dee Walsh, huddles with his team following their win at Murphy, October 6, 2023. / Angela Wilhelm/Asheville Citizen Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Dee Walsh is Robbinsville football.

The legendary coach and former Robbinsville player announced his retirement from the North Carolina school last Friday, ending his career with 208-89 career record.

“It was just time,” Walsh told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “It was time to go. I’ve been proud of what our program has been able to do. We did a lot of good things. It was just time for somebody else.”

Robbinsville has won 14 state championships and Walsh has been involved in four of them – two as a player and two as head coach.

Walsh, who was also Robbinsville’s athletic director, led the Black Knights to the 2014 and 2019 1-A state championships. The Black Knights reached the semifinals in 2023, where they fell to eventual state champion Mount Airy. Robbinsville also reached the semifinals in 2009, 2018, 2020 and 2021 under Walsh. The Black Knights made the state championship game in 2015.

Robbinsville was 7-7 in 2024, Walsh’s final season, but reached the third round of the state playoffs.

Walsh’s win total also includes his three years at Cherokee, where he coached from 1992-94. He was at Robbinsville for his first stint in 1986-89. Walsh returned to Robbinsville in 2008 and stayed the rest of his career.

As a player, Walsh was an integral part of Robbinsville’s early glory years when the Black Knights won back-to-back state championships in 1973 and 1974. Walsh played quarterback, running back and wide receiver.


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Mike Duprez
MIKE DUPREZ

Mike Duprez became a freelance sports journalist for Scorebooklive.com several months after retiring from the newspaper business. A native of Oakland, California, Duprez moved around as a child due to his father’s service in the United States Marine Corps. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. Duprez, who lives in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, had 30 years of experience in newspapers as well as other endeavors before retiring at the end of 2021. He covers stories in both North Carolina and South Carolina for Scorebooklive.com.