GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Bill Ballard, White County
1. What is the most memorable game you've been a part of as a player or coach? "We had the great fortune to be part of a classic Publik Skool (K should be backwards because that is how our students wrote it on their shirts that they made for this rival game) vs. Private School rivalry in the Tucker-Marist series. Going into the 2001 season, Marist led the series 5-4 and we needed to win. My position on the staff was defensive coordinator for Phil Lindsay, the head coach. We led the game 7-0 late due to a heroic performance by Terrell Jordan, who rushed the ball 36 times for 186 yards, although the only score in the game had been on a trap play to Tim Goodwell (he's coaching at Tucker now), who spun off a Marist defender and bounded into to the end zone on an 11-yard run.
"Our defense had held Marist scoreless all game but was running out of gas quickly as the huge Marist line drove the ball down the field late. On the next-to-last play, they were tackled on the 4-yard line and forced to use their final timeout with only 14 seconds left. Walking onto the field, the play that they would run appeared in my head from an old Cairo film when they had played Marist in a playoff game. Coach Roman and I had watched the film earlier that week. Well, we told Rashawn Harris to run with the halfback when he went in motion across the formation and go under the pick that was coming and cover him tight - which would allow Andre Hull (who we called 'New York') to come off the edge and sack the quarterback on the last play of the ballgame. Well that is what they ran! And that is what happened!
"Our students rushed the field elated, our players beside themselves, jumping up and down as we had shut out Marist. Then they turned the lights out on us.
"In 393 games, Coach Alan Chadwick's teams have only been shut out four times - two by Tucker and two by Cairo. The win ended a 33-game Marist home win streak and a region winning streak in the 40s. It would also propel us - Tucker - to win five of the next six in the intense rival game. From 1998-2011 - 14 seasons - the winner of this game won the region championship except for 2006, when we won the game but they won the region. I grew up in Tucker and played for Henderson High School. We played Marist in 1985 in the second round of the playoffs in my senior year. It was Coach Alan Chadwick's first year as a head coach. We lost the game 7-0.
"This story was written in honor of the late Scott Butler, who died this year in Carrollton. He was our principal at Tucker, and he loved to watch the Fighting Tigers."
2. Which high school coach would you want your son to play for, and why? "George B. Maloof [longtime head coach at St. Pius.] He had such passion and love for the game. He made it fun. Herschel Walker tied hisrecord for most touchdowns scored in a Georgia-Georgia Tech game. I would have done anything he told me to do."
3. What is your favorite saying/motto? "From Vince Lombardi: 'Football is a great deal like life. It requires perseverance, selflessness, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.'"
4. Which GHSA policy or high school football rule would you most like to see changed? "Give us five days in the summer after the dead week in full pads or with shells and a girdle at a camp or against another school to work on teaching fundamentals."
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