Homegrown coach uses NFL experience as team earns best start since 2015

Today’s Four Questions interviewee is Mays coach Reggie Austin, whose team is off to a 6-0 start. Mays trailed Lithonia 21-7 in the third quarter last week when the Raiders caught fire, storming back for a 24-21 win. Austin was an All-ACC defensive back at Wake Forest and played three seasons for the Chicago Bears. He has led Mays to its first 6-0 start since 2015. Mays will face Jackson of Atlanta this Friday.

1. What was your message to your team in the third quarter after falling behind Lithonia 21-7?

“What helped us was our first game of the year, we played against New Manchester, and we were down 15-0. So we had came back from 15-0, so the message to them was just, ‘We’ve been here before.’ Especially at halftime, it was 14-7. Us only being down 14-7, there was no panic in the team. We had that drive where we know that we’re a second half team anyway. We always play better in the second half, and we always feel like we’re going to get it done in the second half. We feel like we’re going to be the better-conditioned team than everybody else and the strongest team when it comes down to it in the fourth quarter, so there was never any panic about being down.”

Note: Mays won the game 24-21 on a late touchdown from Nathan Carter. The Raiders defense came up with two stops in the final two minutes to seal the win.

2. What’s special about this Mays team to you?

“Well, they’ve just been playing together for a while. This is my third year as the head coach and my 13th year coaching football at Mays. These kids, they’ve been playing together since the ninth grade. They took their lumps together last year. We were a young team last year, so people took advantage of that, and we just took the whole offseason trying to get bigger, stronger and faster. Just the brotherhood that these kids have with each other and the fun that we have has made it easier during our grind to get ready for this season, so just the togetherness that these kids have and the love that they have for each other.”

Note: Austin coached for Mays from 2008 to 2013 and then returned in 2015 until 2019. He returned again in 2023 for his first head coaching job. He grew up close to Mays and played for Harper, a former Atlanta city school.

3. What is your favorite moment from this season?

“My favorite moment was actually the New Manchester game because we were down 15-0. I just saw how the kids never quit, and they never wavered. They listened to everything we were telling them, and we came back and we won. We went into overtime, and we always practice two-point plays and different scenarios with last-minute and everything, so when overtime came, we knew we were in a good position. Everything was going our way, and to win the game on a missed field goal, everybody was just elated, and how we just celebrated after that big win. I think I ran, like, 80 yards the other way in celebration. It was just a wonderful feeling, so that’s definitely the best part of the season for me. … I was sprinting down the field, and the kids were running behind me, but they couldn’t catch me. With my old legs, I didn’t feel any pain in my legs, so I knew I had a lot of adrenaline going through my body.”

Note: The New Manchester game was Mays’ only one-possession win of the season before last Friday.

4. Do your players like to watch your highlights from when you played for the Chicago Bears?

“They always pull up old highlights, and this team in particular, they found a video of Randy Moss catching a touchdown on me. So they won’t let me live that down, so any time that we’re going back and forth with each other jokingly, they bring up Randy Moss. So yeah, they definitely look up a lot of old film, and you know, it brings in that respect, as well, because they know they have a coach that’s been there and been in the thick of it. I tell them, ‘Randy Moss can only catch a touchdown on you if you’re covering Randy Moss.’ So it tells them that I wasn’t just on the team.”

Note: Austin played four seasons for Jim Caldwell at Wake Forest before spending three seasons with the Bears from 2000 to 2002.