GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Jon Willoughby, Portal
1. Who is/was the most influential person in your coaching career? "Coach Gary Couch at GMC; he is the reason I got into coaching. He taught me that if you do things the right way, everything else takes care of itself. He also taught me how powerful the influence a teacher and coach has on a young person."
2. Who is the best Georgia player you ever faced? "Josh Thompson at Statesboro. I faced him in 2000 when I was at Burke County. No matter if you double- or triple-teamed him, you could not block Josh. He was too quick and too strong." [Thompson played nose guard, defensive end and linebacker in high school before going on to Auburn.]
3. What is the best team you ever faced as a coach? "The best team I ever faced was Hawkinsville in 2003. They had it all - a dynamic QB [Todd Coley], two scat backs that you couldn't catch; Charles Johnson at fullback; Brandon Perry and Trey Dunmon up front. Then when we had the ball, all of those guys were on defense. When Johnson and Perry decided that you weren't getting a yard, you weren't getting a yard." [All players mentioned made all-state. Johnson plays for the Carolina Panthers.]
4. If you were Gary Phillips, the new head of the GHSA, what would be the first rule that you would try to change? "If I were Gary, reclassification would be my top priority. All the isolation rule stuff, schools playing in one classification in football and a different one in everything else; private schools doing their own thing for the playoffs in Class A. All that stuff doesn't make sense to me. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm sure it involves getting away from the number 8 when we are talking about number of regions per classification."
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