GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Tanner Glisson, Manchester
1. Who is/was the most influential person in your coaching career? "Jeremy Williams, the former Greenville head coach who has ALS. Jeremy was my position coach at Manchester from 1994-1996, and I was hired on his first coaching staff at Greenville in 2002. While I learned a lot about coaching from Jeremy, it was the game of life that he taught so well. It was not so much what was said but the example that he set each day. During the 1995 season at Manchester, his father died from a massive heart attack. In our first season at Greenville, his wife Jennifer became pregnant with their second child, Jacob, who was diagnosed with spina bifida. Then five years ago, Jeremy himself was diagnosed with ALS. Furthermore, two years ago, Jennifer (his wife) was diagnosed with breast cancer. During all of these trials, Jeremy's faith and outlook on life has never wavered! Even as he sits today, losing muscles in his face that allow him to smile, he is the same God-loving, optimistic person that I first met in 1994. Never once have I heard Jeremy use profanity or say anything remotely negative about anyone, and the way that he adapts with his condition to spread the word of God is just awesome. He has maximized his abilities to the fullest!"
2. Who is the best Georgia player you ever faced? "Tray Blackmon from the 2004 LaGrange team. He would line up all over the place and you could never run away from him. I don't think we saw a film where he didn't have 15-plus tackles. I was an assistant at Shaw at the time, and we were ranked No. 2 while LaGrange was No. 1 Blackmon was playing inside linebacker and we threw a bubble screen that the running back cut back, and Blackman almost broke the kid's sternum. The game was delayed about 10 minutes. I've never heard a hit like that since."
3. What is the best team you ever faced as a coach? "Would probably be the 2005 Dublin team that went 10 straight games without allowing a touchdown. We played them in the first round that year and were lucky enough to score a TD, but they had one heck of a defense with a lot of really good players, plus I think they averaged 50-plus points on offense. They were extremely good."
4. If you were Gary Phillips, the new head of the GHSA, what would be the first rule that you would try to change? "There is always the talk about the private/public school split in Class A, but nobody ever talks about AA. I think the gap between the lower-tier AA schools (enrollment) and the upper-tier AA schools (enrollment) has been extreme for a while. Since I've been back at Manchester, in the playoffs, we have played Dublin, Buford twice and Calhoun twice. Calhoun had as many in band and football as we have in our school. I think the smaller AA schools have lost a voice for some time."
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