GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We’ll report from a different head coach each day.
Ed Koester, South Paulding
1. Who is/was the most influential person in your coaching career? "I have had several as a college player. I spent a great deal of time on the scout team. Bill Parcells was the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech at the time. I learned that to win, a high level of acceptable performance was necessary. Jim Warren, whose son has won a national title at Abilene High School in Texas, taught me staff organization."
2. Who is the best Georgia player you ever faced? "The best player I faced was the nose guard from 2001 Statesboro, Josh Thompson. He was a monster and went on to play at Auburn. Also Derrick Tinsley from Marietta [all-state in 2000] was tremendous. We had him pinned to the sideline on a punt, and he became unpinned too quickly and went on to score." [Koester was head coach at Lakeside in Evans in 2001 and Cherokee in 2000.]
3. What is the best team you ever faced as a coach? "Statesboro in 2001 kicked us around like a flat ball. The speed on the team was outstanding, and they were extremely physical."
4. If you were Gary Phillips, the new head of the GHSA, what would be the first rule that you would try to change? "I would change the classification process, three divisions – private, city and county public. No petitioning up would be allowed. Using FTE numbers, schools would be placed accordingly from the largest school count down to 64. Make eight regions of eight class 6A; next 64 into eight regions of eight, 5A; the next 64 the same for 4A and 3A; as well as 2A. Class A would be the remaining schools. Distance and travel time/expense would be solved by allowing schools to form conferences with traditional rivals in all sports but football. Season records using various formulas would then be used to seed region tournaments, which would seed state playoffs."
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