Former Savannah State head coach Steve Davenport is back in high school football.
Davenport met with parents and players at Woodland High in Stockbridge on Tuesday night and will start work at the school on Monday.
‘’High school football is obviously my roots, and I’m looking forward to getting back to a more settled atmosphere that I’m truly familiar with,’’ Davenport said.
Davenport, a former star player at Southwest DeKalb and Georgia Tech, was a head coach at Redan and then Decatur before taking a college job at UAB in 2005 as running backs coach under coach Neal Callaway. He became Savannah State’s head coach in 2011. The program went 2-20, and Davenport and his staff – which included newly hired Redan coach Roderick Moore – were let go.
‘’In high school football, there’s a lot more forgiveness,’’ Davenport said. “In college football, the one thing that I learned is that everything thinks they’re supposed to be winning now. In high school, get you get a better opportunity to turn around bad situations.’’
Davenport said he also believed high school football afforded coaches to have closer relationships with players during more formative times in their lives.
“You get the kids at a different stage,’’ Davenport said. “There’s a better opportunity to mold kids you’re dealing with and to recognize and confront issues that kids encounter in high school rather on a college level.’’
Woodland has finished 2-8 each of the past three seasons. The school opened in 2007 and has had one winning season, a 7-4 finish in 2009 under Scott Schmitt, who had been Woodland’s only head coach.
‘’I think the community is a growing one,’’ Davenport said. “It’s a great opportunity to be able to start something that hasn’t had a lot of success. I’ve never been afraid of that challenge. My first job at Redan, they were pretty bad (2-18 the previous two seasons). We were able to have some success. Decatur hadn’t won a region title (in eight years). We were able to win two.’’
About the Author
