ORANGE PARK - Orange Park High School football has hired a former Miami Hurricane and NFL Atlanta Falcon to direct the Raiders football program in 2022, according to a press release from Orange Park Athletic Director Destiny Brightman.

Marcus Wimberly, 47, who will take over after leaving his native Memphis, Tennessee in the spring, brings a wealth of football experience and coaching to the Raider Nation with a four-year career as a Hurricane in Miami under coach Dennis Erickson and Butch Davis and a short-lived career in the National Football League with an injury shortening his playing days after just six games.

“While we had a very talented pool of applicants for the position, we were looking for exceptional experience to turn the program around and create champions in the classroom and on the gridiron,” stated Brightman, “Coach Wimberly has a proven record of doing just that.”

Wimberly will leave Tennessee with a 2016 state championship at his alma mater, Memphis East High School, and a record of 15 years as a head coach with 30 plus scholarship athletes and four players in the NFL. His NFL career, after being drafted in the fifth round out of Miami in 1997 as a wide receiver turned safety, ended abruptly with an injury.

Wimberly’s coaching history at Memphis East included the 2016 title with a 81-57 overall record with playoff stints in nine seasons before taking the head job at nearby Cordova High. At Cordova, in his first year just after the COVID experience, Wimberly finished at 1-9 then 12-20 before leaving. Wimberly comes in to replace Tom Macpherson who has taken a coaching position at Bishop Kenny High School after six years at Orange Park.