Today’s interviewee is Rockdale County coach Kenderrick Bonner, whose team is 3-0 and ranked second on GHSF Daily’s Class 6A Improvement Tracker. Rockdale is 5-8 in Bonner’s two Rockdale two seasons compared to 2-17 the previous two seasons. While at Johnson of Savannah the previous five seasons, he inherited a team on a 23-game losing streak and finished with the school’s first non-losing record (5-5) in 13 years. Bonner is a Burke County alumnus who played briefly as a Georgia Southern football walk-on.
1. Why did you take the Rockdale County job? “The big part is wanting to get to an area that had fewer high schools. A lot of times when there are a lot of schools, you end of having to compete for so many athletes. When you have fewer, it’s the opposite. In Savannah, the competition was steep with [private schools] Benedictine, Savannah Christian, Calvary Day and Savannah Country Day.”
2. You’ve had success at two rebuilding jobs. What are the most important things to put in place at a program that has struggled? “The first thing is to put together a really good coaching staff and have your administration understand the importance of hiring good quality coaches. That’s what I have here at Rockdale. The next thing is building relationships with the athletes. Every athlete has to be coached differently. You have to make sure they know you care about them as people, not just athletes. Once they believe in you, you can coach them however you need to. Most here are untapped potential and raw, like sponges, soaking up everything we have to offer.” [Bonner hired coordinators Everett Nicholas and Brandon Lang and special teams/assistant head coach Tyree Robinson this year. In addition, he has three former Rockdale County players on his seven-man staff.]
3. One thing that might’ve scared some away from Rockdale is playing in the highest classification with a program that is building tradition. How do you feel about playing in Class 6A? “That’s one of the things I was excited about coming here, being part of a 6A program versus in Savannah, where we were 3A. I always looked forward to playing at the highest level and wanted to see what that looks like. We’ve taken our non-region games to see who we are and create an identity. When region play starts, we’ll see how things play out. I feel we’re probably in the hardest region in the state. That said, a lot of our guys want to play on the collegiate level. That’s what they tell us. If you want to do that, this is the right region for you. This is as close as you get to college football. We’re trying to make a run to the playoffs. I know it’s been awhile since Rockdale went to the playoffs, but we believe it’s possible.” [Rockdale’s last playoff appearance was 2014. The 2009 team went 10-4 in Class 4A. There has been one winning season since. The team to beat in Rockdale’s Region 4-6A is Grayson.]
4. What people/coaches have been the most influential to you as a coach? “The first person is Eric Parker, who I coached under at Burke County when I came out of college. He would say if you’re going to sit on the seat as head coach, make sure, if you do nothing else, you’re organized. He’s a great mentor of mine as well as Nick Collins, who is the AD at Salem. Nick really helped give me a perspective of the state of Georgia and different regions when looking at jobs. Then there’s Ahmand Tinker, who is over the Minority Coaches Association of Georgia, which is an organization I’m part of. I’ve learned the recruiting game from him, the transition from getting players from high school to college and what that entails. Then there are others that share that same hometown as me – Franklin Stephens, Michael Youngblood and Marcus Washington. I can pick up the phone and call those guys at any time.” [Stephens is head coach at Burke County, Youngblood at Thomson and Washington at South Cobb. Those three plus Bonner give Burke County four alumni head coaches in Georgia.]
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