GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Ron Duncan, Screven County
1. What is the most memorable game you've been a part of as a player or coach? "Two games stick out, one as a player and one as a coach. We beat Presbyterian College on the last Bronze Derby Game on Thanksgiving my senior year at Newberry College in 1992. They say you remember the last one, and how true that is. The game was played in the mud as it had rained the previous few days, and we won the game 14-0 on what was the end of a great tradition. As a coach, I would have to say beating Union County for the 2001 South Carolina AAA state championship while the defensive coordinator at Camden High School. We kicked a field goal in OT to win 24-21. They had won the two previous state championships and would beat us the following year for the title in 2002."
2. Which high school coach would you want your son to play for, and why? "Besides my father, two men that had a great influence on me and my love for the game of football would be my uncle Ray Lamb and coach Jimmy Neal, the head coach at Camden High School. As a kid, I would spend part of every summer in Commerce with the Lambs. It was a great experience tagging along with my older cousins to workouts and the start of summer practice. The amount of respect that the players, coaches and the community had for Uncle Ray left an unbelievable impression on me at a young age. I knew early on that I wanted to be called 'Coach.' I owe almost everything I have been fortunate to achieve as a coach to Coach Neal. I have taken over three losing programs and I have used the same values that I learned from him in each of them. Both were/are great coaches, but both are better men than they were coaches."
3. What is your pet peeve as a coach or favorite saying/motto? "The saying we started using our first year in Screven was, 'As soon as you think you have arrived, the destination changes.'"
4. Which GHSA policy or high school football rule would you most like to see changed? "It is the greatest game ever invented, and there aren't a bunch of changes that need to be made, but I do see an AAU mindset creeping into the game. I am not sure how it can be policed, but the 'outside-the-school passing teams' and adults trying to mentor and handle kids is not good for the high school game. There are guys out there that can't even run their own lives and have not been vetted by any responsible organization, much less give advice to kids."
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