Coach, thanks for hanging out with us here as we start our tour and catch up with coaches from all around the state.

First question for you.

It was Region 178 for you this year.

First year because of reclassification.

What were some of the lessons that you're taking from the 22 season that you're applying to the 23 season?

Well, I'll tell you what, the ball is just so solid.

You know, you go into games week in, week out, and it's not extremely complex.

You know, the the teams, they don't do a large variety of things offensively and defensively.

They're just very good at dumping resources into into scheme and preparation.

And it's something that we tried to do and tried to match up with.

And it was a great learning experience for for everybody.

And especially because of the number of of sophomores that we played last year.

I think last time we spoke, I told you how many we were going to be playing and you know, there's no better platform in America to cut your teeth, play a high school football than Region one seven, eight.

And, you know, it was it was a great learning experience for for them especially, you know, the football was football.

But, you know, the platforms, the stadiums, the venues, you know, the the professionalism.

It was just next level stuff.

So now those sophomores will be juniors.

How are they looking in practice?

And give us a practice update in general from spring and summer?

Well, you know, we when we met with them in December and gave them their time off, you know, we encourage those guys to play multiple sports and go, go attack it.

And we come back in January, our first team meeting, you know, we said that everything that we've been through and the pains that we endured this past season is just part of the process of our growth and development as a program.

You know, we've as a community, Richmond Hill is just blowing up.

And so there are a lot of brand news taking place.

And, you know, it's we had to to to go through that process of the brand new region, the brand new level of competition.

But then we had to refocus on on ourselves and say, hey, you know, like we if we're going to be competitive and we're going to be able to do the things that we need to do, we have to be very good at the non-negotiables in our program and the basic football fundamentals.

And so we started from scratch from day one, we started at scratch.

We started with splints, stances and starts, and we emphasized that and we got perfect at it over the course of time.

And we entered in our spring prep and then spring football.

And we we are we have a lot of players on our team.

So we, we, we did an inner squad just to give everybody reps to be able to see what they can do and evaluate.

We are able to do that in spring ball.

Very pleased with with the productivity of those guys.

Their approach was so much different because they knew what it's going to take to be successful.

And, and June was was the exact same when we finished with the with the padded OTA and we felt very good about our productivity in the padded OTA and and now you know this final stretch before before we start back school and start of these all of these other variables that these guys have in their in their lives when they're not doing football full time like they are right now.

And, you know, it's going to be interesting.

But we feel really good about about where we're at right now.

You mentioned schedule being there in 17a and if my math is right, you get Valdosta and Lions at home this year, considering that you had them back to back games with a bye week in between.

And I know that we talked about that last season.

When you look at your 178 schedule and the six non region games that you had to piece together, what do you see about your 23 schedule?

Well, the thing about our schedule and and I told to some some guys some potential hires this past offseason you know they there were some guys that were considering coming to Richmond Hill and I said hey listen, it isn't for the faint of heart.

You know, we're not going to show up week in, week out, and we're not going to line up and win because we have better players where we're going to hang our hat on preparing our guys and giving them a shot to win.

And and, you know, people thought I was crazy a couple of years ago scheduling the way that we did.

But, you know, we've just we've learned so much about ourselves, so much about our program wins and losses.

Aside of, you know, we're just trying to get better and we know where the ceiling is and we're trying to reach it.

And we're not going to we're not going to do that by playing any cupcakes, any games.

And, you know, when when you schedule the likes of we're counting coffee and we're playing a team Creekside out of out of Florida and we play Effingham and a couple of local teams the new said and and Jenkins you know those I mean those teams can go get it and and they have enough talent to to to really go go go beat you.

And the great thing about our schedule this year is we played just about every single game at home.

So, you know, that's going to be it's going to be great for our our fans, great for for our community.

And and that's what it's all about.

You know, when we created the motto Building the Hill, it wasn't, hey, we're going to we're going to build this this tiny little hill, man.

We're still building it.

And the trajectory is right here.

And and we're just staying, staying with it, trying to trying to trying to bring this brand to football that this community's never seen before.

I'm going to jump ahead, John, and just ask you, what does football mean to your community?

Well, I'll tell you, it's a it's the one time, you know, you take a look at it.

We in Richmond Hill host the Greater Seafood Festival.

It's a huge event.

But aside from that, football, Friday nights is probably the next biggest gathering of individuals in our community.

And and, you know, we have an opportunity to go out there and where where our Richmond Hill stuff and and go get it and and and represent our community play for one another.

But it's also being able to put a product out there that our community can be proud of.

And I think that's that's the big thing is, you know, I don't don't think I don't think anybody in our community has seen or asked me, you know, hey, coach, what was your record last year?

You know, they're they're engaged with our community service hours the way our kids act.

You know, our kids are employed by a lot of local businesses.

And the way that our kids represent us through those businesses matters matters to me and it matters to them.

And, you know, it's just it's a great atmosphere, great community.

And I think everybody's pulling in the same direction, trying to make this thing as good as it could possibly be.

You mentioned those student athletes and there's obviously schools come by and they want to recruit Richmond Hill players because of what you're building there.

Are there players that would fit in that make that kid an offer category that we have when we talk about recruiting, that for whatever reason, there to whatever and they don't get that chance to be recruited, who would be some of those players that might fit make that kid in offers for you?

Well, you know, the one guy in our senior class that that I think would fit the mold is is guy named Nick Bliss.

And he is an electric all purpose guy for us on the offense He's going to take snaps at quarterback but he's played receiver the past couple of years.

Started playing a little tailback late in the season but he's he's just a phenomenal kid and a good, great football player.

I mean, great football player.

Our our goal this year is like, how many touches can we get him?

But the best part about it is he is not an academic liability.

And so, you know, all these schools come through and they're like, Hey, coach, we've got the high academic standards, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, This is your guy.

You know, he's he's a 4.0 GPA guy, takes AP courses, breezes through them, and he you know, he's just he's the best part about it.

He's just a great kid.

And and I think he's he's going to be a guy that's going to pick up a lot of momentum when the season starts.

We'll keep our eye on him.

All right.

Last question.

Here we go.

Bonus question.

What is a funny head coaching memory?

So you're entering your ninth season with the Wildcats but have been coaching for a while, so share a funny coaching memory.

Yeah, I forget what year I think it was my second year here at Richmond Hill, so 2016 we were playing South Effingham High School and pre-game warm ups.

One of our best players, our best player at the time is over on the sideline and you know what's wrong with him?

And nobody knows.

And he's kind of he's down on the knee and all of a sudden I seen vomit and I'm like, What?

What?

What's what's going on?

You know, like, you know, these kids, they'll take some pre-workout or something to get amped up.

And I'm like, Man, this guy got to amped up for this big region game, right?

And then and then another guy's on the sideline and another and another.

And then ambulances are being called in.

And I'm like, What is going on?

Our entire senior class essentially got food poisoning.

And in the pre-game meal, while we played, we played with our punter who had never played defensive line, was playing defensive end for us, and we won the game.

I don't know.

I don't know how we won the game, but Hunter, you know, offensive line.

Yes.

Is God's honest truth.

And we we won the game and I really don't know how we did, but we had essentially like 70 or 80% of our starters were out sick.

I mean, people were going to the hospital, it was I mean, there was a there was a continuous line of ambulances taking our guys to the hospital because, I mean, it was just it was just bad.

And in a and, you know, it's a that was that was one for the record books right there.