Amid struggles, first-year coaches preach patience. ‘You can’t skip steps’
Several Georgia high school football programs under new leadership have seen a significant dropoff in on-field success this season.
Each new coaching job has its own problems to attack, and different situations present their own challenges. Coaches often talk about needing time to implement their culture and scheme in a program before winning can be expected, but fan bases tend to lose patience when a team’s record regresses in Year 1 under a new coach.
Programs such as Irwin County, Westminster, Commerce, Marion County, Dutchtown and Cedartown will finish with losing seasons under a new head coach after winning at least five games last season.
Some challenges are similar for many first-year head coaches around the state. Dutchtown’s Kevon Glenn is facing a common season-killer in high school football: roster turnover.
Glenn, who took his first head coaching job this season, returned just one starter from last year’s 7-5 team. The Bulldogs are 2-6 this season, with several losses coming via “snowball effects,” according to Glenn.
“Whether it was Stockbridge or Lovejoy or Stephenson, small things like a blocked punt snowballed into 14, 21 points before a younger team could respond and get to grasps with it,” Glenn said. “I think a lot of it is mental mistakes and being on the same page in unison with the team.”
Glenn believes he can correct those mistakes, but only with time. Many of his starters are in their first season of varsity football, and learning how to play clean and respond quickly takes time.
Glenn, 24, believes that continued confidence in his players will accelerate that growth. He doesn’t sugarcoat hard truths, but he does use them to encourage his young roster.
“I tell them if we got our butts whupped, it’s as simple as it was. I tell them the hard truths of what we need to improve on, but the biggest difference is I show them the positives,” Glenn said. “I show them on film where if we had thrown the ball here, this guy’s wide open, that’s a touchdown.”
Irwin County’s Larry Harold has dealt with his share of turnover, too. But he mentioned a different challenge that has plagued the 1-7 Indians this season.
Irwin County went 12-2 last season and won back-to-back state championships in 2019 and 2020. Irwin County also dominated with the Wing-T offense, a stark contrast to Harold’s spread offense.
Harold says his scheme change, along with several other adjustments, will simply take time to yield success.
“The biggest thing is patience. I preach it to my touchdown club meeting,” Harold said. “When I interviewed for the job with the board, I gave them a five-year plan, not a two-year plan. Most people in our microwave society don’t want to wait that long, but just like I told our coaches about two or three weeks ago, you can’t skip steps.”
Harold’s optimism about the future is coupled with reality. He knows that a program with seven region championships and two state titles in the past decade won’t want to wait five years to win.
The expectation is high for Harold, and he likes it that way. It’s part of what brought him to Irwin County in the first place.
“(Georgia coach) Kirby Smart says pressure is a privilege, and that’s why I wanted to come back to South Georgia, because football means so much to this community,” Harold said. “In the offseason, they’re going to come to the weight room, they’re going to come to spring practice, they’re going to always be talking about football, and that means a lot to me.”
Northside-Warner Robins coach Daniel Williams has done the job before. Williams took over at Hughes in 2019 after a 4-6 season. He led the Panthers to their first state championship last season before he left for Northside.
Williams’ first season at Hughes, though, looked a lot like his first year at Northside. Williams’ first team at Hughes went 2-8 in 2019. Northside is 0-8 under Williams after a 2-8 finish last season.
Northside didn’t hire Williams after a strong season, but Williams will eventually be expected to win there. The Eagles had winning seasons in 2021 and 2022 and have three state championships since 2000, most recently in 2014.
Williams’ roster also saw a lot of turnover at key positions this offseason. The Eagles have just one returner that played all 10 games last season.
That also resembles Williams’ first season at Hughes, where he started seven freshmen on defense. Williams is confident he can coach another young group and rebuild Northside the way he did at Hughes.
He’s also managing expectations and potential frustration from boosters and fans with extreme transparency. Williams meets with boosters every Monday after a game to breakdown film from the previous Friday night.
“I turn on Hudl and we’ve got it broke down, and they see what we thought was a good play, the ones we thought were bad and the ones we thought were ugly,” Williams said. “And they understand the youthfulness and the inexperience.”
Other first-year coaches like Griffin’s Bernard Goodrum and Flowery Branch’s Michael Perry have surprised struggling programs with winning seasons.
Goodrum’s Bears are 6-2 and coming off a 21-18 upset of Jonesboro. Griffin, which finished 1-9 the past two seasons, already has locked up a top-two finish in Region 3-4A. The Bears can win the region with another upset — this time against Central-Carrollton — on Friday.
Flowery Branch is also 6-2 after a 4-7 finish last season. The Falcons will face Class 4A’s No. 2 team, North Oconee, on Friday before finishing the season against winless Cedar Shoals.
The Falcons are projected to finish second in the region and host a playoff game for the first time since 2020.
Goodrum and Perry credited the same reason for their unexpected immediate success.
“I think hiring a staff is the most important thing when you come in,” Goodrum said. “I think being cognizant of what your program is at that point and being able to look at your roster and know what’s a kid’s need. For me, I’m a defensive guy … so I knew I needed a big-time offensive guy, and that was the goal for me was to hire a good offensive staff.”
Perry is taking over his fourth Georgia high school football program. He has led teams to fast starts in Year 1, but he’s also struggled for a year before earning a winning season.
Perry said hiring a winning staff isn’t always doable — it depends on what a school administration allows a new head coach to do.
“When you have assistant coaches that are great teachers of the game, and not just in the football, but in the weight room,” Perry said. “If you bring in your people, it’s going to happen much quicker, so I think that’s a very important aspect. Being in a place where they want you to bring what you need.”
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
