Today's interviewee is John Barnett, a former player and longtime assistant coach at Thomson who co-authored the Thomson football history book Ghosts of the Brickyard with Alvin Richardson. Barnett came out of retirement this season to become defensive coordinator at Briarwood Academy in Warrenton, where the Buccaneers are 6-0 in the Georgia Independent School Association.
John Barnett, Thomson historian, coach
1. You're a longtime coach who is somewhat unusual in that you've made your career primarily in your hometown. What's your background, and where did your love of Thomson football begin? "I am a native of Thomson and a 1975 graduate of Thomson High. As a boy, I watched Thomson go 66-4 between 1965 and '70 with two state titles. I saw players like Ray Guy, Jay Lynn Hodgin, Tommy Williamson, Andy Knox, Phillip Russell and countless other local greats. Ray Guy [a Thomson quarterback and Oakland Raiders punter who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014] lived in my neighborhood and could boom it as an eighth-grader. Great at all sports. I witnessed him pitch 15 shutout innings in a state semifinal before we won in 16. Pitched and won two days later. Coach Paul Leroy established an excellence that I wanted to emulate when I became a coach. It was definitely a different time growing up in Thomson in the '60s. Seems like the whole town was at Friday ball games. The community really rallied around the team then. Before integration, R.L. Norris had a great program too. They played in the semis four times in the '60s but lost to much larger schools out of places like Valdosta and Tifton. Today I'm in the choir at First United Methodist Church. On any given Sunday, I can look out and construct an impressive lineup of Bulldogs - '53 and '4 all-state Sonny Poss, 1961 all-state Bob Knox Jr., 1960 all-state George Lokey, Class A lineman of the year Andy Knox 1967, and about half a dozen other lettermen, including two starters from the '67 state team, Tommy Brown and David Young."
2. As a player, you were a teammate of Eddie Lee Ivery, who was selected for the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame this month. What was Eddie Lee like both as a player and person, and how does he rate among the best running backs you've known or seen over the years? "Eddie Lee Ivery, Jerry Mays and DeMarco McNair set the standard for Thomson High School running backs. I played with ELI and coached the other two. ELI was a great player who practiced like he was trying to make the team. He was a great teammate and classmate and just one of the guys. He and I got to coach together for several years and remain close friends."
3. You were a close friend and assistant coach to Luther Welsh, coach of Thomson's state-championship teams of 1984, 1985 and 2002. What was the secret to his success? What drew you to him, and what did he do better than anybody else? "The first time Luther Welsh met with us in 1984, he said, 'I've been doing this a long time, and you don't out-coach people; you out-work them.' That always stuck with me. As a young coach, I spent countless hours with just him and me scouting and watching film. I tried to learn everything he could teach me about football and anything else. He was a tough taskmaster, but most of my success as a coach I owe to him. I was his defensive coordinator for 19 years; both tenures in Thomson."
4. Why has Thomson football meant so much to you over the years? "Thomson is my home, and some of my greatest memories are of those games as a child. My playing days weren't as successful for several reasons. I say, in seriousness, that if Eddie Lee Ivery had benefited from a better left tackle in 1974 - that was me - that he would have had 2,500 yards in 10 games rather than 1,710. I was blessed to be a part of three state championships and 12 region titles in 21 years as defensive coordinator. Those state championships are the highlights of my career. My blessings are too many to count, and that led me to co-author Ghosts of the Brickyard with Alvin Richardson. It is the history of Thomson High football dating to 1911. Through that research I got to meet great Bulldog legends from the '40s on up and made countless friends. I did it for Bulldogs from every era."
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