GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
1. Who is/was the most influential person in your coaching career?"Alan Chadwick. He taught me that you can be successful by focusing on fundamentals and discipline, and he really emphasized putting the team ahead of any individual goals. A lot of people want to criticize private schools for having unfair advantages, but in the years I worked at Marist, we rarely took the field with the more talented team. Alan gets his kids to believe they can overcome anything by sticking together. Plus, he has a very loyal coaching staff, some of whom played for him many years ago. And if you ever wonder how much that program means to his kids, come out and watch a practice on Thanksgiving. The sidelines are packed with former players. It's really a pretty meaningful experience."
2. Who is the best Georgia player you ever faced?"Jarmon Fortson (WR/Carver-Columbus). We [Chamblee] played Carver-Columbus in the Georgia Dome [semifinals] in 2007. Somehow, we let a 24-6 lead slip away midway through the fourth quarter, but we couldn't stop him. I think he had nearly 300 yards receiving. He was unbelievable."
3. What is the best team you ever faced as a coach?"As an assistant coach, the best team I faced was Northside-Warner Robins in the 2006 state championship game. We hung tough for a half, but in the second half, they just dominated. As a head coach, the best team was probably Tucker in 2012. We were extremely young, and our starting QB got knocked out on the first series of the game. It looked like a varsity team playing a JV team the remainder of the game."
4. If you were Gary Phillips, the new head of the GHSA, what would be the first rule that you would try to change?"Without question, something has to be done about the transfer rule. Players move around way too freely. Some kids graduate having played for three or four different high school teams. We frequently hear of kids living in one county and playing in another. Parents come up with bogus paperwork. It's hard to police. One thing I'd recommend is this: If a player moves to a new school, he must sit out a full year unless his new school is a minimum of 50 miles away from his previous school. That way, you can virtually assume he has physically moved to a new address."
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