GHSF Daily's Four Questions feature historically poses the same questions to a different Georgia head coach each issue. This season, head coaches are being asked Four Questions tailored to current events. Today's interviewee is Pace Academy head coach Chris Slade, whose team last week ended the 37-game winning streak of Eagle's Landing Christian with a 17-16 victory.
Chris Slade, Pace Academy head coach
1. What was the significance of this win for Pace Academy? "The first thing is I want to give credit to coach Jonathan Gess, because he does a good job with his football program. In my opinion, they've set the bar and standard for building a program and sustaining it no matter what classification. When you win 37 games in a row, you've done something right. For us, it wasn't just because we broke a streak, but we beat a good team. When Coach Gess and I scheduled this game, I told him this is the game we wanted to play to see where we were and to get hit the mouth early in the season. We wanted an opportunity to play them."
2. You trailed 16-0 in the first half. What changes did you make to turn the game around? "We made a field goal right before the half. That gave us a little momentum. If you have a little something on the scoreboard going into half, that gives you a mental boost. We made some minor adjustments, but I don't know if we made any major changes. We stuck to our game plan, corrected some mistakes, and we just had a couple of things go our way. If we played them 10 times, it might be 5-5. We just caught the breaks." [Slade also discussed ELCA's decision to attempt a fourth-and-2 that Pace stopped at the ELCA 27-yard line, which set up Pace's winning touchdown. "That was a big stop for us. They're accustomed to trying and making those plays," he said. "I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't try it against us."]
3. Class AAA has been racking up huge wins this season. Calhoun, Cedar Grove, Westminster and Benedictine have all beaten bigger schools, most of them ranked. In addition to beating ELCA, Pace took out Class AAAAAA New Manchester in the opener. Just how good is AAA this year? "I tell you what, we're stacked. In my opinion, this might be the best classification top to bottom in the whole state of Georgia. The top 10 can play with anybody. Then you just added Jefferson and Benedictine. When it gets to the playoffs, it's going to be a juggernaut. I just hope we'll be fortunate to make it."
4. Pace has gone 6-5 and 5-5 against tough schedules since winning the Class AA title in 2015. How does this team stack up? "I don't know. Here's the thing. We've had so many household names and big-name recruits. [Jamaree Salyer, Andrew Thomas and Trey Blount are now at Georgia; Realus George is at Miami; Deon Jackson is at Duke.] This team doesn't have that. I don't know if we're in the same conversation with Calhoun and Peach County and Cedar Grove. But this is a very close, tight unit. The kids love each other and want to win for each other. When you put that together, it puts you in position to do well. Right now, though, my focus is beating Monroe Area and slowing that quarterback down [all-state Chandler Byron]. If we're not careful, he can run it up on us pretty fast." [Pace will travel on Friday to Monroe Area, which is off to a 2-0 start.]
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