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Published Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in Sports
High school coaches under pressure to win
Sports Column by STUART CROSBY
stuart@newnan.com
Prior to the 2008 high school football season in Georgia, there were almost 80 vacancies for head coaching positions for one reason or another.
There were severa who, like former East Coweta head coach Danny Cronic, retired while a number of coaches resigned on their own or under pressure from boosters or simply the school's desire to try someone else.
Prior to this season vacancies, that included Newnan High School after the retirement of Robert Herring, totaled around 50 schools that had an empty seat at the head of their football table.
According to the Monday edition of the Georgia High School Football Daily, there are currently nine vacancies around the state including one at Northgate after Bill Luckie resigned last Tuesday after five seasons.
Over the course of the last few days Redan, Duluth, Calhoun County, East Laurens, Telfair County and Perry have joined Northgate, Southeast Bulloch and Effinghham County in the coaching search dance.
Eight of the nine coaches were at their schools for at least five years and that same number had at least one team go to the state playoffs.
Only Duluth failed to have a season with an 11th game under their coach with Northgate appearing in the playoffs last season while Redan, East Laurens and Perry last appeared in 2007.
I have left out the debacle known as the Valdosta coaching position intentionally as Rick Tomberlin's future was left up to a Monday evening school board meeting, but he will probably be the 10th casualty with the 28-9 loss to the Newnan Cougars last Friday being his swan song after four years.
Also, the Tomberlin saga is a different animal than the others since the Valdosta program has won a national record 618 games and has been featured in a number of media outlets.
The Wildcats finished the season 7-4 and during the Tomberlin era were 22-21 after he succeeded Rick Darlington who was 24-14 in three years and led his 2003 club to the AAAAA final where he finished in the runnerup spot.
What makes the coaching situation in "Winnersville" sad is these two gentlemen replaced current Woodstock head coach Mike O'Brien who had a record of 70-20-1 and a state title in his seven-year term following the death of the legendary Nick Hyder who passed away after the 1995 season.
Prior to the O'Brien hiring, the school had three coaches from 1946 until 1996 including Hyder, Wright Bazemore and Charlie Greene who coached for two years in the early 1970s.
After watching the Lowndes Vikings play last Friday night against East Coweta and looking at their record under their head coach Randy McPherson, which includes three state titles, I keep reaching a conclusion that some followers of the Valdosta program are trying live in the past where their success remains.
Since 1995 the Vikings have not had a losing season and have won at least 10 games in nine of those seasons and have won at least seven in four seasons with four state championships during that time along with several trips to the finals where they were the runnerup.
My point to this is that while I realize firings happen, I still have trouble accepting that coaches are at the mercy of whether a teenager can shoot a basketball or throw a touchdown pass.
We are in an era where we expect our teens to be able to learn about parallelism, separation of an atom or simply reading a job application as opposed to touchdowns and rebounds.
As sports fans, we should be passionate about our teams and hope they win a lot of games and championships, but at the end of the day give me that kid who will be able to run a business, save a life or teach in a classroom.
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In case you were there, which Im sure you were not...some kids have certain learning issues...its not the coaches problem in High School to help them, its the "TEACHERS"
Never the less, say what you will the student is the person who fills out there schedule, parents review them and advisors make try to make sure that they are on track to graduate. Ive seen him personally issue some of the best atheletes at the school a ticket off the team...not to mention other coaches.
Posted by bthrower at 2:24 AM
I had the good fortune of playing football for coach Beaucam, Luckie, Hollis and Anderson. Winning on friday night or in life is a product of doing things right. I was very fortunate to have coaches who knew how to teach both. I still have several of Coach Anderson's sayings on my desk. "weather the flury" "put your foot on the line" "Character wins on the football field everytime"
Posted by Former NGHS Wrestler Football letterman at 2:14 AM
and the comments made about him preparing student/athletes for life. Letting your top running back take 3 PE classes at once just to be eligible to play! What good Coach let's that happen ?
Posted by footballwatcher at 10:50 PM
No one remembers who finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th......it's the ring that blings and last count, I don't see a ring at any of the 3 high schools for football....Cronic, Bass, Luckie, Beauchum, etc might have been great at one time or another, bottom line; no state Championships.
Posted by Marco Polo at 7:20 PM
1) You mentioned last year's NG team making the playoffs. Isn't 4 teams from each region in the playoffs kind of like handing out participation trophies in little league? 2) All coaches want that 4.3 forty yard dash player or the QB with a 60 yard cannon or a two pairs of 6'5 280lb linemen. Makes it easy to keep your job. The reality is, you don't come across those skill sets very often, so you had better know how to teach the fundamentals to perfection and devise schemes for the players you have. That's why Cronic teams were successful while others relied on sharpened resumes touting championship rings.
Posted by Scout at 1:38 PM
should be geared toward preparing these young men for life! My former coach (Cronic) said it best...I run a tough program with strong values and beliefs...we are a family and a TEAM! Prepare these kids for life, teach them the value of dicipline, teach them that the class room matters! Winning was just the fun part of the culmination of hard work (41-5 at EC) but be realistic and realize for 99% of these kid the game is done after High School...prepare them to WIN at life!
Posted by bthrower at 12:40 PM
Luckie, you LUCK ran out.
Posted by superman at 9:20 PM
Spoken like a true Bama man
Posted by Mott the Hoople at 2:44 PM
And winning is all that should matter--our schools have a duty to make sure today's students have fond memories of winning football games to think about while they cook up the french fries...
Posted by Jeff Gordon at 11:54 AM
Al Davis said just win baby and that is the motto. Idealism is we want our kids to be successful in the classroom but realism is playing football on Friday nights on CSS or ESPN. A coach has to win regardless of how he helps players off the field. His off the field interactions with the community is no factor when he does not make the playoffs. Just win Baby!!!!
Posted by Offsides at 10:30 AM
All you have to do is look at the amount of money spent on high school and college sports to see where we have lost touch with reality. We would rather throw money at the long shot of being a professional athlete than the reality of preparing for the classroom and workplace.
Posted by Gardner at 10:05 AM
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High School sports is "EXTRA" curricular
11/20/2009
Link To This Comment
EXCELLENT column Mr. Crosby. Who took the the extra out of extra-curricular? I cannot believe the parents that are either trying to relive their high school experience, re-shape it by living vicariously through their kids and/or have totally lost sight of what high school sports are! In defense of Coach Luckie, this season has been rife with flu and from what I have observed - Northgate just does not have big kids and if they do.. they aren't going out for football. I bet football coaches would LOVE to be able to field a team of athletes that had been coached by someone else for eight months out of the year and had hundreds if not thousands of dollars spent on their training and travel (ie baseball, cheerleading, softball, etc.). This is not a swipe. It is just a fact. It used to be that there was that "one" obnoxious parent that everybody talked about and wouldn't sit next to in the bleachers. Now the bleachers are FULL of them. (Luckie, from what I have read in the past weeks in the comment section, IMO, Harrison did you a favor!)
High school sports, band, academic teams, etc, are there to enhance the high school experience. Get kids' nose out of the books, give them something healthy to do, teach them what it is to be part of a team - win or lose, teach them how to win AND how to lose - so many different lesson. They are there to enhance the kids high school experience - not define it.
("Character wins on the football field everytime." I think I've seen a similar saying on the back of a t-shirt. The others are looking kind of familiar, too, hmmm....)
Posted by whererurpriorities at 9:51 AM