Today’s interviewee is Pinecrest Academy coach Shawn Coury, whose team chose to play eight-man football this season after summer participation was low, partly because of COVID-19. Coury plans to lead his team back into the GHSA’s Region 6-A Private next season. Pinecrest, located in Cumming, won a GHSA region title in 2015.
Shawn Coury, Pinecrest Academy head coach
1. What went into the decision to step away from the GHSA this year and play in the eight-man league? “When I accepted the position in late May and began talking to the football families, we were concerned with the low participation numbers. At that time, we only had nine returning players and two upcoming freshmen. I began speaking with other athletes in our school over the next couple of weeks and eventually we were able to add a couple more kids to our roster. We did not feel comfortable putting this small group of kids on the field, as many had little or no experience. Our small group really wanted to play, so we began to internally discuss options to save our season. By mid-June, with the season approaching and wanting to respect the other teams on our schedule, knowing we were about to throw a wrench in everyone’s schedule, we decided to reach out to the GHSA and to the GAPPS [Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools] to discuss options. The GHSA gave us guidance on how to work with our region and non-region opponents. The GAPPS was very open to the idea of helping us get an eight-man schedule. By the third week of June, we had contacted all of our GHSA opponents to let them know what we were planning, and then the GAPPS began working with us to help us secure an eight-man schedule. At the end of the day, we had a handful of kids that were begging to play in some shape or form, and we wanted to keep their safety at the forefront of any decision we made.”
2. How has your team done so far, and how are the players and coaches enjoying it? “It has been a true blessing to our kids. We had a great summer. Buzz started to spread through our community that things were going well. We talked a few more boys into playing as a result. We played a tight game with Harvester Christian [of Douglasville] in week one. Our boys fought back from a 28-8 halftime deficit to driving to tie with under a minute to play. We came up short and lost 40-32 to a tough Harvester team, but our boys began to come together as a unit that night. Over the last couple weeks, we have improved in our execution and teamwork, and we now sit at 2-1. The boys are having a blast, the sideline is exciting, we are starting to come together in a new offense and defense, and the boys really seem to enjoy each other. A similar buzz has grown in our middle school ranks, and we were able to get 23 middle school players to come out this season.”
3. What are the basic rules in eight-man ball, and what are you learning about strategy? What has been surprising about the experience? “The rules are almost identical to the 11-man game. A few minor differences include the field only being 40 yards wide, and we are only required to have five guys on the line instead of seven. Besides that, it is blocking, tackling, running, passing, etc. From a defensive strategy standpoint, it’s important to be really good at '0′ coverage. It is hard to control the box and keep a deep safety. On offense, you have to get creative in your blocking schemes, particularly pass pro. Special teams are the greatest challenge to overcome. Protecting a punt or an extra point/field goal proves to be very tough with only eight guys. You just can’t make the edge wide enough. We have basically decided to quick kick and always go for two.”
4. Is it possible that you’re having so much fun you might stay in GAPPS? What’s the plan going forward? “It is a great deal of fun and this is definitely the right fit for our boys at this stage in our rebuild. The GAPPS is a top-notch group and have bent over backwards to make us feel welcomed. It has been a pleasure working with them through this entire process. Eight-man does come with a roster limit of 19 players. While that has worked perfectly for us this year, we do not think we will be able to continue next year. We have had additional boys come out for the high school team, and the middle school numbers are doing well also. If we return everyone currently 9-11 – we only have three seniors – and all of the current eighth-grade players continue to play, we will be able to field a team of 29 next year. Our goal is to try to create an 11-man non-region schedule next year and build from there. There is a very strong possibility that our middle school team will stay in the GAPPS 8-man league.”
Produced by Georgia High School Football Daily, a free e-mail newsletter. To join the mailing list, click here.
About the Author
