Julius L. Chambers High School went with a big name for its next head football coach. It’ll be former NFL player Captain Munnerlyn, a name that Charlotte-area football fans know very well.

Munnerlyn played 154 games in the NFL, mostly with the Carolina Panthers, who drafted him in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He also spent three of his 10 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He made 529 total tackles, 12 interceptons, and nine forced fumbles in his career.

The Alabama native had been on the staff at Myers Park High School, which is nearby the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium.

The Chambers job will be his first as a head coach. Munnerlyn is taking over for Brandon Wiggins, who led the program for a few seasons. Wiggins is now an assistant principal at Dudley High School in Greensboro and Guilford County. Before going to Chambers, Wiggins was the head coach at Ben L. Smith High, also in Greensboro.

Wiggins led Chambers to overall records of 9-3, 8-4, and 5-5 this past season.

Chambers is just a few years removed from constantly finishing as one of the top teams in the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s 4A/4AA classes. The Cougars won the 4AA state title in 2019 and in 2020-21. They finished as the state runner-up in 2018 and in fall 2021.

With an average daily membership of 2,686 students this school year, Chambers is positioned to become an 8A school following the NCHSAA’s realignment into eight classifications before next school year. In the second draft of the proposed new conferences, Chambers was placed in a 7A/8A league with 7As Butler, Independence, and North Mecklenburg and fellow 8As Mallard Creek and West Charlotte. The conferences are subject to change following an appeals period.