Entering 50th season at Marist, Chadwick says each year is ‘new and exciting’
Credit: (PHOTO/Daniel Varnado)
Today’s interviewee is Alan Chadwick, who is entering his 50th season as a high school football coach, all at Marist. This is his 41st season as head coach. Chadwick, 73, holds a record of 445-81. Only Larry Campbell, at 477-85-3, has more Georgia victories. Marist’s record in Chadwick’s 49 completed seasons is 531-107-2. The .831 winning percentage in that time ranks No. 1 in Georgia. Marist improved on that record last season with a 14-1 mark and Class 4A runner-up finish.
1. From the end of your playing days until Marist hired you in 1976, how and why did you become a high school football coach? “I couldn’t do anything else but coach. Football was in my blood. It’s just something I’d done every day since high school and college, working out all through the summer with my brothers and receivers and running backs in school. I just gravitated to it naturally. So I was drafted in ’74 by the Bears and then got cut and went back to East Tennessee (where he had been the 1973 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year) as a graduate assistant coach. Then the next year, I tried out for the Redskins. I thought I had a pretty good chance to make the team until they signed Randy Johnson as the third-team quarterback. I got cut and went back to East Tennessee and finished up my master’s. Then in December of 1975, I came down and interviewed at Marist midyear and then started working here Jan. 13, 1976, under Dean Hargis.” (Chadwick and brothers Dennis and Walter were first-team all-state players at Decatur in the 1960s. Dennis and Walter signed with Tennessee. Alan signed with Georgia, stayed two seasons and transferred to East Tennessee. Randy Johnson, the man who ended Chadwick’s NFL dreams, was a journeyman NFL player best known as the Atlanta Falcons’ original starting quarterback in 1966.)
2. How did a quarterback who set passing records in college become a wishbone guru at Marist? “Dean Hargis (Marist’s head coach from 1968 to 1984) had the most influence on my coaching philosophy as a head coach. He felt like a really strong running game was what he wanted to do and would make you a better overall football team. To be honest, Marist was struggling a little bit to be consistent with other offenses. (Marist was 11-17-2 the three seasons before going to the wishbone in 1975.) So, when Pepper Rodgers went to Georgia Tech (in 1974) and put in the wishbone, Dean latched on to that and felt it would be something good for Marist. And he wasn’t wrong. It equalized the playing field a little bit and gave our kids something to hang their hats on and led to some really, really productive years for us. My first year, we had a really good team. We went undefeated in the regular season and lost in the region playoffs to Woodward Academy.” (Marist is still an option team that averaged about 260 yards rushing and 60 yards passing last season, though the offense is no longer a true wishbone and frequently runs out of the shotgun.)
3. What’s the biggest change since you started coaching in 1976? “So much has changed. The players are exposed to so much, and it’s a good thing in some ways, and it’s a bad thing in some ways. There are distractions — social media, the phone, the opportunity that our kids have to come and go and do so many things. They’re just pulled in a lot of different directions. We see that in our attendance in our workouts through the summer. There’s not as many kids who are totally bought into working at football the way it requires. Other sports are gaining stronger interest for our Marist kids. In a way it’s good thing, but in another, it takes away from their preparation.”
4. What is the single most fun thing about coaching high school football? “It’s certainly the games on Friday night, the excitement, the enthusiasm, the adrenaline you get. Once football season starts, I love everything about it. I love practices, I love taking the product and trying to make it better. I love the interaction with the kids and the coaches. I love watching film, breaking down film. I love the player meetings and staff meetings. It’s so much ingrained in my blood. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I don’t have that anymore. I’ve been playing or coaching football since I was in the fourth grade. Every year is a new and exciting year.”
About the Author
Todd Holcomb has been a contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1985. He is currently co-founder and editor of Georgia High School Football Daily.
