Today’s interviewee is Miguel Patrick, who led Cedar Grove to the Class 3A championship in his first season as head football coach in 2019. This is Patrick’s 13th season at Cedar Grove. He was the program’s defensive coordinator under Jimmy Smith, who is now on Arkansas’ staff, before being promoted last season.
Miguel Patrick, Cedar Grove head coach
1. You’ve had time to reflect on a historic season. What do you believe was the story of the 2019 season for Cedar Grove and for you as a first-time head coach? “The biggest story is that we fought through adversity. Going through a coaching change is never easy. I got hired really late. Taking on new responsibilities was a challenge for me and the staff. What made it special is that our senior class really bought in. They showed a lot of leadership in the period between Coach Smith leaving and when I got hired. Guys were out there every day working hard even though the future was far from certain. Also, the 2020 class won three state championships, which is really special, something that had never been done in DeKalb County by a group of seniors.‘'
2. You’ve coached Cedar Grove basketball and football as a head coach. In which sport can a head coach make the most difference and why? “Football. The head football coach impacts so many people. So many more kids, so many more coaches, so many more opportunities to help people learn, grow and form relationships. I’ve never been around a group of coaches like our staff at Cedar Grove. They’re good men on and off the field, great mentors, great fathers, great friends and, on top of all that, great coaches.”
3. How does Cedar Grove look this season? “We’ve got a solid group of returning starters on offense. Austin Smith [Eastern Michigan commit] is a three-year starter at quarterback. Janiran Bonner [offers from Georgia, Oklahoma and Oregon] is a big-time prospect at wide receiver. Rashad Dubinion [offers from Georgia, LSU and Georgia Tech] and Langston White [offers from Georgia State, MTSU and Mercer] are both dynamic playmakers at running back. Our offensive line has a good mix of veterans and returning guys. Kendell Brown and Keon Watson both started 15 games last year and will be the heart of our OL group. Defensively, we are returning an all-state DT in Demarius Jackson for his senior year. Indiana commit Jordan Grier and Southeast Missouri State commit Antonio Taylor are really solid players at safety for us. Sophomore Kayin Lee is an up-and-coming star for us at cornerback. He’s been offered by Auburn, Florida State and Arkansas. We lost two of our four starters on the defensive line and all of our starting linebackers, so we’ve got a lot of work to do, but I feel like we’ve got a lot of potential on the defensive side of the ball.”
4. This has been a challenging offseason. What are some of the things you’ve done to make things as good as possible, preparing your players but also keeping them safe? “DeKalb County has been really proactive about the safety measures to try and keep everybody safe. We stayed at groups of 20 until July 27 when a lot of other places had gone up to groups of 50. We also were several weeks behind in terms of doing competitive drills and throwing the ball around. In terms of finding the balance between preparation and keeping everybody safe, we’ve made a lot of use of online tools like Zoom for meetings and extra workouts so that we can prepare for the upcoming season while keeping our contact time down. We’re making sure we’re taking temperatures before practice, sanitizing all of our equipment every time we use it, enforcing social distancing where we can and being really vigilant about coaches and players wearing masks when appropriate.”
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