GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Dwight Hochstetler, Bowdon
1. Who is/was the most influential person in your coaching career? "I guess it would have to be my Dad. I learned work ethic from my parents. When I was growing up, you'd walk on home from school and go in the front door and keep on going out the back door to do chores before supper. I'd probably also say Buddy Radford. He gave me my first opportunity to coach at Manchester [in 1972]. I played baseball in college. When I was in high school, we only had two football coaches on staff, and one was the basketball coach. I didn't really know that much about football back then."
2. Who is the best Georgia player you ever faced? "Garrison Hearst. My second year at Bowdon, we played Lincoln County for the state championship. We held him to 88 yards that night, but he was such a complete player. We were driving the ball one time and threw a pass, and he intercepted it and ran it back for a touchdown. He ran back a punt. He was a big-time player. Also the guy from Charlton County, Champ Bailey. We played and beat them the year we won the state title [1992]. He was a tremendous player."
3. What is the best team you ever faced as a coach? "I'd say Lincoln County in 1989 with Hearst. They were very good defensively. It always seemed like they molded linebackers to be 6-2, 220 back then."
4. If you were Gary Phillips, the new head of the GHSA, what would be the first rule that you would try to change? "They do a good job down there considering, but I do wish they'd find some way to help the smaller public schools. Two years ago when they went to six classifications, our numbers were really low, and we went up to AA. We were six from being Class A. This year, I thought we'd drop down because we had 35 less kids, but they let in 12 more charter private schools that kept public schools in AA that don't have AA numbers. It seems the GHSA is geared to help the big schools and not the little schools."
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