GHSF Daily is expanding its Four Questions feature this season beyond head coaches to other voices in high school football. Today's interviewee is Perry McIntyre, the sports information director at Lovett, his alma mater. McIntyre also is a well-known sports photographer who has shot more than 250 Falcons games, three Super Bowls and six FIFA World Cups. He has provided imagery to the University of Georgia for football games for the past 39 years.
Perry McIntyre, Lovett sports information director
1. What's your background and how did you end up as SID for Lovett? "I was sports editor of the Red & Black in college [at Georgia], writing for a couple years before that position. I was then hired by Dan Magill to assist him while I was in grad school in what was then a three-man SID operation - Magill, McGarity, McIntyre. Greg and I shared an office on the end of the third floor hall of the Coliseum. I moved from assistant SID to managing editor of The Georgia Bulldog Magazine; did that until moving back home to Atlanta in 1983. Once back in Atlanta, I began as the Falcons' second team photographer. That role got me noticed by then-Lovett AD Bill Holleman, who brought me in to supplement the school's athletic photography. As my experience and skill set became more apparent, the school offered me a position as SID."
2. Sports information director doesn't go far enough to describe all you do at Lovett. What other hats have you worn? "I have helped produce the Lovett Network broadcast of football for 14 seasons and managed our stat crew for that same period. I am in my 12th year as the school's yearbook adviser, and also coached Lovett soccer for a total of 17 seasons. In those 17 seasons, Lovett teams I helped coach were in 14 state semifinals, or better, with the girls having a run of seven state finals in nine seasons, winning the school's first two state championships in the sport for the gender."
3. What do you like about the job? "All told, I have worked over 40 years with my two alma maters. To me, there is something special in giving back to places which nurtured your development, and I feel devoting my time and talents is another form of giving back, while also 'paying forward,' helping the current generation of students. What I most like about the job is seeing our students meet or exceed their expectations, finding success at the end of a long process of hard work, failure, then eventual accomplishment. Being just a small part of that process is my reward."
4. You've attended and worked many big sporting events. What is it about high school sports, and football in particular, that you like? "High school sports in general, and football in particular, is all about community, and it is almost universally the one activity which most galvanizes that school's community. The overwhelming majority of high school football players never play another down after graduation, especially at a school such as Lovett, but the players' toils and brotherhood in the game remain among one of the most formative experiences of their lives. And for me, every once in a long while, you get to watch a former high school player make his NFL debut on Monday Night Football, in one of the game's elite venues, right next door to where he scored the winning touchdown in the high school state championship game [Grant Haley]."
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