Unexpected mid-playoff bye week offers rare opportunity for Rome football coach
For the first time in his career, Rome coach John Reid will scout his future semifinal opponent in person.
The Wolves advanced to the semifinal round of the Class 5A playoffs last Friday, but they won’t play again until Dec. 11.
The GHSA postponed the Class 5A semifinals so that Gainesville and Hughes could play their quarterfinal game Friday night. That game was delayed after drama arose in response to a Nov. 21 fight between Gainesville and Brunswick players in the second round of the playoffs.
The winner of Gainesville-Hughes will play Rome in the semifinals.
Class 5A semifinal teams Rome, Thomas County Central and Roswell were essentially handed a de facto bye week halfway through the playoffs. It could be seen as a frustrating stop for teams rolling with momentum, but Reid has an optimistic outlook.
“You can feel sorry for yourself and say, ‘Thomas County Central knows who they’re playing. Gainesville and Hughes know who they’re playing. Rome is the only one who doesn’t know they’re playing,’” Reid said. “You can feel sorry for yourselves and all that. We don’t mention it.
“With that being said, you make it a positive. We were going to play either one of these two teams anyhow. We’re just playing them later.”
Reid, who has been the Rome coach since 2015 and won state titles in 2016 and 2017, plans to take advantage of the week off by watching the Gainesville-Hughes game in person. He doesn’t want players to make the trip, but Reid said assistant coaches could join him in Fairburn.
The game will be televised, but Reid said there are several things he can only learn about both teams from attending the game.
“I think the main thing that coaches take from that is warmups, demeanor, sideline attitude, substitutions and things like that,” Reid said.
Reid is also using the extra week to prepare for both opponents, but he has to be careful about what he introduces to his team. He doesn’t want to teach individual strategies for Gainesville or Hughes because it could confuse players as they only prepare for one of those teams next week.
Reid has still found a way to start game preparation without knowing who Rome’s opponent will be.
“What we have done is work on, from a defensive standpoint, is there a commonality in formations and plays with the two opponents?” Reid said. “Is there something that they both do without telling the kids, this is team one, or this is team two?
“Because we’re still going to work alignment assignment versus certain situations defensively and then how to stop certain plays defensively. So we’ve found that there is some common things.”
Reid said everything else is business as usual. The Wolves are handling the week like their first three byes this season: Shorter practices on Monday through Thursday and film and weightlifting only on Friday.
That’s exactly how Reid wants too approach the week mentally, too. It’s just another week for a Rome team that earned its second semifinals trip in the last four years.
“We spent a lot of time and effort in the offseason creating a plan for bye weeks, so it’s really not that big of a deal,” Reid said. “If you make it a big deal, it’s going to become one, and it’s going to affect your performance.”
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.
