my picks for the few locals

I figured I would throw these picks out real quick this morning for the few local teams that are left in the state playoffs. Congrats to all of them for having great seasons. WRHS-Rome I went to this game last year with high hopes that the Demons could indeed play with Rome University and it was evident in the first three minutes that they couldn't. I am telling you that if Warner Robins finds a way to stay close in this game its a small miracle. Rome has not lost in forever and they have a running back named Jamious Griffin who has over 2500 yards to go with 37 touchdowns. Did I mention they have not lost in forever ? I think Warner Robins gives the effort and the Wolves defense has given up some points this year, but can the Demons give Dylan Fromm time to do what he needs to do ? Last year they could not and Fromm took a beating. I think it's a little better this year but I don't think Rome loses this year. Rome 40 WRHS 21 Peach County- Calhoun This game has all the emotions possible for a high school football game with what happened last year. I don't think I need to repeat what happened last year except to state the fact that Peach got screwed out of a possible state championship. I would take Chad Campbell to win any game against any coach when the talent is fairly equal. I respect Chad Campbell more than any high school coach in this area and that is saying a lot because I respect the majority of them. As a former reporter the way I judge coaches is how they treated me when I needed them. Sometimes it would be a text saying hey coach can we talk today. 90 percent of the time Chad Campbell calls me back immediately. If he didn't do that it was a text saying what time to call him. When he did that he would always be waiting for the call. I wish that all coaches would be that way. Most of the coaches are like that but we have a few in this area that wont give you the time of day. I talked to coach Campbell at the Northside game and he was nice enough to give me an interview at halftime of a close game. He was also willing to talk to me after that game. He understands that doing that is a part of his job. I know he probably didn't want to do either one because he had more important stuff to do, but he took the time to do it. Peach has the chance of a lifetime tonight to avenge a heartbreaking loss. You see Peach County and Chad Campbell don't play football just for the school, they play football for the community. You may as well close the county down tonight because no one will be there. Chad Campbell gets the fact the he is playing this game for the community, and I just cannot pick against him right now, even though when I started writing I had planned to pick Calhoun. Peach 24 Calhoun 23 Northside- Dacula Jadin Daniels has put Northside on his back for the last five weeks and has the amazing stats of 1500 yards rushing and passing. 400 of those rushing yards are over the last three weeks while he has only 116 yards passing. He will have to pass in this game to win, but I think the Eagles season ends tonigh Dacula 28 Northside 24

I saw yesterday that Mark Daniel has retired at Rutland after compiling a 2-27 record over three years and my first thought was me wondering if it was a voluntary retirement or did someone step up and tell him that maybe it was time to retire. My real thoughts were that he never should have been hired in the first place. His record over the five years before he was hired at Rutland was 10-30 at two different high schools. So if he couldn't win at Schley County or Wayne County, why did the hiring committee think he could win at Rutland ? I think that Mark Daniel is a very good man and that is going from the two times I talked to him over his years at Rutland. He cared about his kids and had that old school mentalitiy as a football coach. He may have been the perfect choice for a school that was steady and already winning games, but that was not the case at Rutland. The Hurricanes had struggled in George Collins last two years , winning only four of the 20 games they played. It was time for a fresh start for Rutland football. The hiring board did not deliver. So now, once again Rutland will hire a football coach looking for a fresh start. One of my questions right off the bat is who really wants that job ? Rutland, for whatever reason, has always struggled on the football field. They have made the playoffs in basketball and baseball and even soccer, but football has always been a problem. I don't know but I am guessing it has a lot to do with the number of kids it takes to field a good football team. So hiring board, here is what you must do to turn this program around. 1) Hire Local- I know several Bibb County assistants that could thrive in this job opportunity. I will not mention names because I don't think that would be fair. You want names you can contact me by email or twitter. Bibb County has some great young assistants who are ready for a head coaching job. Please don't go outside and hire another coach that is at the end of his career, Hire young- Kids want to run the spread and want to throw and want to catch and please don't hire someone who is going to come in and run the wing t. That offense is complicated and I know coaches have won a lot of games with it, but Bibb County has got to be progressive in its choice for Rutland. Look what Justin Rogers did at Jones County. I believe a lot of the success is because of his offense and how he got the kids to love it. I need to see a young guy who has worked as an assistant and maybe never even had a head coaching job get this Rutland job. Kids these days don't care what you did in the past, they want someone they can relate to . Hire from a winning program- This is a must. The coach that gets the Rutland job must come from a winner and preferably from the Middle Georgia area. They need someone that understands what the culture of Rutland football is and how they can change it. With that being said, I am urging the hiring board to find a coach from Jones, Peach, Mary Persons, or a local school. Hire a coach that has been trained by great coaches and that are hungry to be a head coach. That's the only way this will work. Trust the Athletic Director_ I have heard that the principal of the school has hiring rights for any coaching job that is open in Bibb County. I just say why why why to this. Bibb County is blessed to have Barney Hester as the AD and he and whatever committee he puts together should have full hiring power for this job. We don't need a friend of the principal getting this job. We need the best man to build a winner at a school that has basically never won football games. Rutland it is your time to change the fortunes of your program. Please don't blow it again

The thoughts on a solution

I have had many people tell me that really no solution exists to the issue of why only one of six public high schools can win more than 35 percent of their games and to me that's just sad. I don't think that's acceptable by any means but I really don't know if anything will be done about it. When I talked to coaches they did have some thoughts about things needing to be done. They are as follows.


1. Feeder systems for each high school. I had more than one coach tell me that the training to be a varsity football player and run the system they want to run does not start until they get those kids to high school. Not only did some of them question the coaching these younger kids were getting at the middle school level, but many times they had no idea how to run the offense or defense their high school team was running."I would love to see our rec league adopt something similar to what they do in Gwinnett, which is to have kids growing up playing with the kids they will play for in high school", said one coach in Macon. So on Saturdays the 7 year old Howard Huskies would be playing  the 7 year old Rutland team."
Whatever the way they do it, something needs to be done to have some underclassmen ready to play at the varsity level when they walk in the door. If a middle school coach knows that most of the kids are going to end up at Howard, then teach them how to run the wing -t.
2. Hire local- I believe that one of the most important things that Bibb County can do is hire coaches that played at the school they are coaching at. The parents need to see a familiar face on the sideline and someone that they respect right away. Macon has had some extreme failures when trying to hire outside of the district and the biggest one of those in recent history was Larry Harold at Central. Harold was hired to replace Jessie Hicks, who had turned the Central program around, but Harold quickly killed the vibe of Central football and quietly left after just a year. They now have a Central guy at the school, as does Southwest and Northeast and I feel like that's a great start.But those guys have to bring the energy and recruit the middle schools for athletes.


3. I would be interested to know who exactly hires the football coaches. Does Bibb County AD Barney Hester have control over that or is it the school principal ? I will admit that I am not really sure but I believe that Hester , as the county AD, should have full power of the hiring of head coaches. I would also be interested to see if anyone actually gets fired from a head coaches job for losing ? The high school coaching profession has many important parts that includes making young kids grow into men, but winning games has got to be way up on the importance list and sometimes I am not sure if it is in Bibb County .


4. Change the district lines- I know it sounds impossible but I had 3 out of 5 coaches I talked to suggest it. I am not sure how that would work but it is obviously something to look at. I do not really understand why Macon has six high schools instead of four bigger high schools though and maybe someone can explain that to me.
5. The overall attitude of Bibb County- I know this may come as a shocker but Macon is not really a football town or at least not a high school football town. If two Macon teams are playing, the stadium will probably be half filled and if a Macon school is playing someone else, it is less than that. We had a few nights this year, such as the Jones County and Howard game, that Defore was almost packed. But six weeks later the stands were less than half packed for Howard and Upson Lee. I guess the obvious fact is that fans support winning programs and history says that Macon has not produced football programs that win. So here is a great idea. Don't complain about private schools stealing your players because kids (or parents for that matter) don't leave winning programs unless they aren't playing, and if they aren't playing you probably don't need them anyway.
I think Bibb County is trying to promote its  product but they have a long way to go. Some of the people I talked to think Macon is an impossible place to win football games at a consistent level and that is why coaches such as Jessie Hicks left for Baldwin County, but Bibb County has to find a way to be better, even if it means starting over
I know I didn't give any surefire ways to turn the fortunes around, but hopefully I made a few eye-catching facts stick out just a bit

the question is why ??

So my main question is why Westside can win football games in Macon and none of the other five can win on a consistent basis.
Westside started playing football in 1997 and they brought in Robert Davis to build the program. Yes that Robert Davis, a legendary football coach who won state titles and won 10 games a year every year.
He didn't get close to 10 wins that first year at Westside in his first year which was 1997, but the reason was the Seminoles only played five games that first year and they were non region games. Davis just wanted the new school to feel what I was like to win.
Guess what , they went 5-0.
The next year, playing a region schedule, Westside went 9-3 and made the second round of the playoffs. Davis got the Seminoles to a state championship game and had a 101-33 record in his years as the head coach.
He handed things off to Spoon Risper and these  are the only coaches that Westside has ever had.
So my number one reason for Westside's success and the other schools failures starts with culture.
Now what do I mean with culture? Well it's simple. Robert Davis won right off and people came to watch them win and young kids 20 years ago came to watch and guess what, the kids that watched then grew up wanting to play Westside football because they won. Don't tell me that winning doesn't breed enthusiasm because it surely does.
I was able to get four coaches in Bibb County schools now or at some time over the last five years or so, and they were open to talking about the issues, as long as I didn't use names. I totally understand that since the subject of winning has not really been brought up much.
One of the coaches I interviewed for this story told me plain and simple how things were when it comes to culture. "If I had a problem with a kid and we had to get on him at practice, he would go home and tell his mom or dad about what happened and right away the dad would be calling me asking me why I was having to discipline his son," the coach said. "It was like I did something wrong because I was trying to make his kid better. Now take that same situation to Peach County and have a player tell his dad that Chad Campbell jumped his butt at practice. Well the parent of that child is probably telling that kid to do what the coach says because he knows what he's talking about.These kids grew up wanting to play for Peach County. Is it that way for Rutland or Northeast kids ? I know that isn't the case in every scenario but I cant tell you how many parents I have had to talk to because I yelled at their kid at football practice."
According to a current high school coach, the story runs even deeper. "I feel like the main problem is the culture of Bibb County is selfish and apathetic," this coach said. "I think football programs are a good barometer of the community. The kids are scared to completely buy in to anything. To be honest I don't really know how much different it is at Westside these days. Macon teams win games when they have better athletes but how often do they win a game they should have lost compared to losing a game the should have won. But there is no doubt that stability in a program is very important"
So I believe that the culture of a school is very important. Southwest is a basketball school who expects to win basketball games and everyone knows that goes way back. Northeast has been a great girls basketball and track school for years and a pretty good boys basketball program. Rutland has even had some success in basketball and baseball while Howard has put together some decent baseball teams. Central behind Andre Taylor and Shelia Toombs, have churned out some very good basketball teams over the last 10 years. But lets face it, football is the money sport that all schools want to be good at. They don't announce homecoming queens at a soccer game.
Diluted populations of athletes- Bibb County has six public high schools to go with at least six private high schools and the talent level at each schools is highly diluted by that. "I thought there was a time a few years ago that we had a chance to make a run in the football playoffs because we had some talent, but when it came right down to it, we had about 20 very good football player and that was it," a loocal coach said. "We did not have enough depth to always have quality practices and when it came down to a game with a very good football team they would be able to beat us because they had 40 good football players. Macon is supporting so many schools that the talent level at each school just doesn't go very deep. Sure Houston County has a lot of schools, but every one of those schools is still 5A or higher. Macon schools are 3A or lower, which makes it tough."
To make matters worse, the age of specialization has taken off. It is now very unusual to see the best basketball players in the school play football anymore. "That has become a huge problem over the last six or seven years," said yet another area coach. "We lose some athletes because they just want to play one sport and they give up football. I think that has a lot to do with parents wanting kids to be great at one sport and maybe getting a scholarship instead of being good at three sports and not."
Poor grades are something that all coaches have to deal with. "If we lose one or two of our better athletes because of grades it hurts us tremendously," another local coach said. "I think it we, as football coaches do all we can to keep kids eligible and on track to graduate, but it just cant come from us. It has to be coming from home too.
So we have talked about some of the reasons why Bibb County has failed to win football games. Some of them are problems that every area has but others are not that big of a deal in other areas of the state.
The next blog will focus on working on solutions to the the problems.

Why cant Macon public high schools win a playoff game (besides Westside of course)

I know that I have been around Macon forever and I have been out in the trenches covering high school football for the better parts of 13 years now. I couldn't help but think back after the first week of the playoffs this year about how long it has been since a Macon public school besides Westside has actually won a playoff game. That thought stayed with me basically all day on Saturday and by the evening I knew that I had to figure some things out.
I am sure that many of you know that the last time a public  school from Macon won a state football championship was 1975 when the Central Chargers defeated Douglas 21-14.
Let me see, that was 43 years ago.
The next quick fact I wanted to know was how long it had been since a Macon public school had actually won a playoff game. Surely I was not thinking straight because like I said, besides Westside, I couldn't remember it ever happening.
With a little research I indeed found out that it has happened, but I was stunned to find out that the last time a Macon public school besides Westside has actually won a playoff game was when a Carror Wright led Northeast Raiders defeated Thomasville by a final score of 20-13. That my friends was in 2002.
So, it has been 16 years since a Macon team not named Westside has won a state playoff game.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is something that made me go wow, or oh my, or what ?? or many other statements I wont share.
Why why why can a county like Bibb not win a playoff game ? I promise you we will get to that later.
So teams in this city win a lot of football games right ? I thought they did okay but maybe just maybe, I need to check that out . So I went to work to get those facts and I will share with you by giving a synopsis of football success since the year 2000.
Northeast
The Raiders have won 16 games over the last 5 years and have been through 3 coaches. That is 16 wins to go with 35 losses. They have made the playoffs in two of those years but lost both of them. They have a new football coach this year in Jeremy Wiggins that actually went to Northeast which will hopefully be a good fit.
Northeast has a winning record overall since 2000 with 102 wins and 98 losses.


Southwest
The Patriots are 20-31 over the last 5 years and the five years before that were even worse with a record of 14-37. Southwest football has never made it past the first round of the playoffs and since 2000 they have a record of 61-132. That means Southwest has won 31% of its games over the last 19 years.
Central
The Chargers have a record of 22-28 over the last 5 years, but the five years before that they were 10-40. They have not won a playoff game since 1989 when they beat Southwest in the first round before losing to Warner Robins. Over the last 19 years they have a record of 68-123 for a 35% win percentage. They are also on their third coach in the last five years.


Rutland
The Hurricanes are 6-43 over the last five years and the only success they ever had was a 6-5 record in 2013 and a 7-4 record in 2007. They are 16 years into playing football at Rutland and they have a record of 44-117 which means they have won 27% of their games.


Howard
The Huskies have made the playoffs the last two years but could not get a win either year. They have a 5 year record of 22-29-1 but the five years before that they were 7-53.  which leads to a 29-82-1 record in the schools existence.. That's a 26% winning percentage.


So first of all are things getting better ? Lets take a look at the combined numbers for the last five years. That would equal up to 86 wins and 166 losses which adds up to a winning percentage of 34%.
The five schools record for 2018 was 16-38 which is barely 30% winning.
Guys that means 70% of the time, these five Macon schools are losing their football game. Even if you take away Rutland and its winless season the percentage is still very poor at 38%.
One of my questions this week will be why can Westside win and none of the others can ? Did Robert Davis build the culture so high that it is just accepted that Westside would win. Has Spoon Risper fed off that great winning tradition that Davis brought to Westside ?
Westide has a 40-18 record over the last 5 years and has advanced past the first round three times in those years. In the last 19 years they have compiled a 160-61 record  for a winning percentage of  72. The last five years has seen it stay steady at 68%..
It really does not make any sense to me, so I have talked to three or four coaches or former coaches who will help me figure things out.
My question to you is are these type of records acceptable to a city like Macon ? Personally its kind of hard for me to swallow.
Keep reading guys, I have plenty more this week

The Best Picks in Central Georgia

We are getting down to it with some teams already being done with football season and others heading into the playoffs. I am thinking it should be a pretty good weekend for local teams this week and then next week it get much tougher.
So my expertise brings me to a 66-13 record, which is fairly remarkable. I will hope to continue this brilliance for at least another week.
The worst thing about this week and basically the rest of the year is I have no place to work games. The GHSA in its own audacity, charges like 900 bucks to live stream a playoff football game so that knocks me out of doing anything. I guess it is still the one thing I miss about writing for the news paper.
Howard- Burke//// Burke County is a 7-3 football team and Baldwin County beat them up pretty good. Howard is a bit up and down and it really depends which team shows up. If it is the team that beat Westside and took Jones County to the wire I expect them to win. If its the team that lost to Jackson and Upson Lee it will not be a good night.
I am betting on Jeremiah Kelly to get the Huskies going and for DeAndre Shelton to lead them to their first playoff win ever.
Howard 27 Burke 20


Cook- Westside///// Westside takes care of a 3-7 team behind the best running back in the city, Tyshaun Freeman
Westside 30  Cook 14


Veterans- Stockbridge
Veterans has had a remarkable year but they are 2-2 over the last four games and were shutout by WRHS, which is worrisome considering the Demons aren't known for their defense. The Warhawks had a great year but it ends Friday night against a 9-1 Stockbridge team.
Stockbridge 27 Veterans 6


Northeast-Swainsboro///Swainsboro is on a 6 game winning streak and as much as I want Northeast to win this game I don't think they can. The Raiders battle but cant quite get it done
Swainsboro 33 Northeast 18


Northside-Tucker// Might be a difficult game and then again it might not. Tucker is 7-3 and Northside has under achieved at 5-5 . I think the Eagles are pretty much going to peak right now.
Northside 27 Tucker 22


Upson Lee- Thompson , easy queezy win for a very good football team
Upson Lee 34 Thompson 9


Stratford-Aquinas/// Stratford pulled the upset last week over Auinas and look what happens to them. The schedule comes out and the Eagles get Aquinas again. I am sure Aquinas has been studying all week on how to stop Christian Palmer, who absolutely torched them a week ago. On the other hand Mark Fariba knows that too so Stratford will try and figure out how to get Palmer loose. I love Palmer but I just cannot make myself pick the Eagles to win this game.
Aquinas 24 Stratford 20


Ringold- Peach////Blowout city for the Trojans
Peach 38 Ringold  14


Perry- Baldwin//// I love this game and I would love to see it. Baldwin is 5-5 with 5 straight wins after a brutal schedule basically made them be 0-5. They gave up 192 points in those 5 games. Since then they have given up 34 points in the last 5 games.
Perry makes the playoffs and they can be explosive. Both teams lost to Veterans in close games one by 7 and one by 8.
Lane Rucker and Davion Ross get it done in a great game.
Perry 24 Baldwin 23


Here are the rest of them
MDS  27 Holy Innocence 13
Wesleyan 34 Tattnall 14
WRHS 43  Locust Grove 17
Jones County  35  Bainbridge  17

What can I say.
I mean I guess someone has to be able to pick almost 84% of high school games correctly.
At 56-11 I guess I can say that cant I ?
Show me another place where I can find someone picking  that high of a percentage please because I would like to talk to that person.
I tackle 12 more games this week and I will try and stretch my wins in a row to 24, which would be pretty impossible but hey I sure am going to try.
THE HEAVYWEIGHT BATTLES
Westside-Peach
This game is at Peach County which is a very difficult place to go when you are searching for a win. Peach County has dominated this match-up but they dominate most of them. I tried to see a way to get Westside a win here because they can run and throw, but can they run and throw against Peach County.
MY bigger question is can they stop Peach County from scoring ?
My answer comes to a no
Peach 30 Westside 20


Veterans- WRHS
I would love to pick Veterans in this game because they have had an outstanding year after being mediocre for their entire existence. But this is Warner Robins and the Demons are on a pretty good run on the football field.
WRHS 35 Veterans 22


Tattnall- Greene County
Of course I want to pick Tattnall in this game for obvious reasons. They have won five straight and Jamal Marshall is a difference maker. But I have heard that Greene County is a manly football team with big guys and lots of speed. Sorry guys I cant do it.
Greene Co 40 Tattnall 34


Howard- Mary Persons
I love the job Paul Carroll has done with Howard and I love the way they play. But wait a minute, Mary Persons is a different beast. I mean they are one of the biggest beasts in the area. I saw Howard come undone against Upson Lee a few weeks ago and I hope Howard learned a lesson in that game. That lesson will pay off later but not this week.
Mary Person 31 Howard 14


THE NEXT LEVEL
West Laurens- Perry
Both teams are desperate for a win and I think the home team takes this one.
Perry 24 West Laurens 13
Mount de Sales- Hancock Central
This should be a very good  football game but I think the Cavaliers wear their opponent down late in a close game.
MDS  23 Hancock 17


Stratford- Aquinas
Stratford can still sneak into the playoffs even with a loss because of their tough schedule and that is a good thing because Aquinas is pretty good.
Aquinas 30 Stratford  13


THE REST OF THE BUNCH
Northeast 46 East Laurens 6
Wilco   27- Spalding 10
Bleckley  24   SW  20
Wash Wilkes   33  FPD 16
Northside   33  HOCO 17
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