Today interviewee is Stanley Lott, talk show host for “The Talk Around Sports” on 101.9 The Rocket and online at therocketrocks.com. Lott’s show is co-hosted and produced with the help of his wife, Vette, and sons Tyler and Logan. Before launching the show, Lott did color commentary on Coffee’s football broadcasts for 28 years. He’s a former University of Georgia football trainer.
1. Coffee had a nice win Friday, beating Tift County 55-7. What was your impression of the game and where Coffee is headed this season? “That was a huge first game of the regular season win for Coffee. Going back to the spring scrimmage, Coffee lost to Brooks County. Some people went to scratching their heads and started wondering what was going on. However, these coaches and players had only been together 10 days. After a great summer of workouts, seven-on-seven and OTAs [organized team activities], Coffee then beats Fitzgerald 28-14 in a scrimmage on Aug. 5 and then took it to Tift County. Coffee clicked on all cylinders. However, special teams and the defense was the difference. Pat McCall takes the second-half kickoff and goes 90 yards for a touchdown to give Coffee a 27-0 lead, and DB Anthony ‘Ant’ Paulk takes an interception from Tift County back 53 yards for a TD. Coffee never looked back. We will have another big test Friday night as we travel to Bainbridge.”
2. What’s Coffee’s new coach like? “When coach Mike Coe was hired back in the spring from Madison County, Fla., he came out of the introduction press conference and hit the ground running. We interviewed Coach Coe that afternoon on our radio sports talk show, and he got emotional a couple of times when he talked about his father was not in his life and his uncle helped raise him and he always knew that he wanted to be a football coach. He said y’all are the first ones to have me crying during an interview. I knew then that Coach Coe had a passion. He is a big man, but he has a bigger heart. He is a community person. You will see him at church, the grocery store, barber shop, at a restaurant, etc., and that is a breath of fresh air. He reminds a lot of people of the legendary former coach Bonwell Royal. He loves God, his family, his players and everyone around him. He has become one of my dear friends and is giving his testimony at our church on Sunday, Sept. 11. The staff that he put together here is amazing. He has coaches that he brought in from Florida that were head coaches and ADs, and he brought in former Coffee High players. He believes in working hard but loving your players harder. Coach Coe also has a saying, ‘Let’s C.R.A.W.L.,’ meaning Community, Respect, Attitude, Willingness, Love.”
3. You’ve spent a lot of time following high school football. What has kept you so involved and invested in it? “It’s the love for the game of high school football. High school football is bigger than ‘Friday Night Lights’ and the season tickets are settled in divorce court before anything else. It’s the only sport that has everyone in that community on the same page for one day or night each week during the season pulling for their team to win, especially here in south Georgia. It’s the cheerleaders, band members, players, coaches, staff, etc., that put on a show and entertain us, and we all have one another’s back. On my show, we love interviewing the different high school football coaches and players and giving these schools some PR. Some of these schools have no radio coverage in rural areas. I just love all stories and history of Georgia high school football.”
4. What’s either the most memorable game or player you’ve seen? “This one is easy as for the most memorable game. I would say games in 2017 when we beat Tucker at Tucker in the semifinals to play for our first-ever football state championship and then the state championship game against Lee County, a game that we missed a field goal by inches outside of the upright on the last play of the game. Even though we lost in overtime, I will never forget that game. I have seen several awesome and amazing players throughout the years all over the state – Jake Fromm [Houston County], Derrick Brown [Lanier], and Chansi Stuckey [Northside of Warner Robins] to name a few. However, watching Tyreek Hill [formerly of Coffee, now of the Miami Dolphins] and the speed that he had was incredible.”
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