Today’s interviewee is Parkview coach Eric Godfree, whose team defeated No. 5 East Coweta 41-14 last week in the Class 7A second round. The victory put the Panthers one victory from their second consecutive berth in the semifinals. The last time Parkview accomplished that was during the state-championship seasons of 2000-02.
Eric Godfree, Parkview head coach
1. Was Friday’s victory your team’s best performance this season? “Absolutely. We’ve had several of those types of performances the past few years. This is the first this season. Hoping it’s a big momentum changer for us. We made a few personnel and scheme adjustments to help simplify for our kids the past couple of weeks and it’s paid off big for us.”
2. In preseason, you were ranked in the top five coming off a semifinal appearance in 2019 and the return of all-state RB Cody Brown. Did you know you weren’t that good just yet, that you’d probably take some tough losses? Or was it more of a struggle than you expected? “We knew we lost some key players to graduation and it would take some time trying to replace those special players, and we knew we had a really tough schedule, but yes, we all expressed some disappointment early. We knew what we were capable of playing like, and we were not executing at a high level. It was more of a struggle to get us going this season, but our kids have been relentless through it all, and I’m hoping we are peaking at the right time.”
3. Where has this team grown since September? What makes you better now? What has come together? “I think our biggest growth has been our kids trusting each other. As I said earlier, replacing some of those really good players we lost to graduation and not having a ‘normal’ summer to prepare, it took longer than I hoped for us to truly get to the point of building off each other’s strengths and helping each other’s weaknesses. I do believe the adversity of losing has helped to make us better. You either learn from it or truly lose from it, and each time our kids have responded with great maturity and used it to take a step forward. That adversity helped draw us all closer and to see the need for more focus and more want to get better every day.”
4. Cody Brown, a career 5,000-yard rusher, is down to his final month as a high school football player. You’ve coached many great backs over the years, some of those at Parkview. What’s his place in Parkview and state history? What makes him so good? “Every season Cody seems to get stronger and stronger the longer the season goes. I’m guessing his playoff stats are as good or better than any back we’ve had. And we have had a lot of impressive running backs come through Parkview. A lot. I do think his size, strength, speed and overall great character help him to be so good and be his best when a lot of players are losing steam at the end of a season. We do try our best as coaches to manage kids’ bodies for long seasons, but we can’t take any credit for all his success. He’s super special on and off the field. As far as his place in Parkview RB history with names like Brett Millican, Sean Dawkins, Brad Lester, Caleb King, Chris Carson and many more, I don’t want the debate to stop, so we will just enjoy the final games with Cody and look for the many more future great running backs to try top a player like Cody Brown.”
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