Some never go through it in a whole career of coaching while others seem to do it on a yearly basis. It’s the transition from one school to another.
For most of 2008, Greg Robinson has been making the transition to new head football coach of Houston County High School after more than a decade at Dodge County High. Everyone who experiences this kind of change has their own accompanying story, and for Robinson his starts with the word ‘family.’
“I haven’t had to make too many transitions, but this has been very smooth,” said Robinson on Wednesday as his new Bears were in the second week of spring football practice. “As far as working with the kids and working with the coaching staff that was here and the coaches I brought in, it just feels like we’re a family. It feels like it’s right.
“We have a real good chemistry on our staff. Sometimes you don’t get that for years, but this bunch has really gelled the last few months.”
After numerous playoff appearances with Dodge County, Robinson takes over a Bears program that went 1-9 in 2007, but has been a contender in Region 1-AAAAA and went as far as the state quarterfinals in 2006. To start this new era of Houston County High football, Robinson first drew that proverbial “line in the sand.” He said a good work ethic already existed in the team, and he wanted to stress accountability and being in the same line of thinking.
“My first impression was great size,” said Robinson about his evaluation of the football talent. “After testing them, we have some good speed at some positions. It would be great to have a game breaker, a great running back who can go the distance. We have good running backs, a good line and good defense.
“It’s going to take time. We have a lot of things to still settle. As long as the kids are working and have a goal, we’ll be O.K.”
The Bears began spring practice on May 12, as did the other county schools. It finally got to that time after watching all the old game films and meeting with players one on one to get the helmets and pads on and do actual football work.
“The best thing is we’ve gotten better every day,” said Robinson. “Hopefully we’ll be better (Wednesday) than what we were (Tuesday). Especially in this second week we’re seeing both sides of the ball understanding what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re playing at a higher level of intensity.
“The main thing we’re trying to get across is to play full speed every play. When you get to the point you are able to play full speed, you don’t ever take a play off and you keep working.”
Robinson said he’s also been able to instill the kind of offensive and defensive schemes he wants to run with this team. He said it’s the type of stuff that worked for him at Dodge County and for Houston County in the past.
“They’ve run an eight-man front here before,” said Robinson. “They’ve run the wing-T here before. There are a lot of similarities in what we do. It still comes down to executing and being ready to play football.”
As for the make-up of the Bears’ coaching staff, Robinson brought in Rex Hodges from Dodge County. He was the offensive line coach defensive coordinator for the Indians, and at Houston County Hodges is the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Robinson also hired Jonathan Rotty from Dodge to coach defensive ends.
Denny Maddox is now the defensive coordinator for the Bears with his focus being on the linebackers. Chris McCook and Lee Pope round out the defensive staff as the secondary and line coaches.
Heath Burch goes from the defensive line to the running backs, and Tom Seward goes from running backs to split ends and flankers. Fain Griffin is another new coach at Houston County working with the quarterbacks.
Jody Dean, Kenny Yanzetich, Tripp Turley and Jason Brett are coaching the junior varsity and freshman levels.
“We try to get all of our coaches involved in 9th through 12th,” said Robinson. “I don’t want to isolate any team off by itself.”
As spring football wraps up and the summer approaches, Robinson said they will evaluate everything and make sure each player is in the right position. When school and post-planning ends, he said they will get into the weight room, work on agility drills and do other voluntary summer workouts and passing leagues.
The Bears first game action under Robinson takes place on Aug. 15 in a scrimmage with Perry High at Herb St. John Stadium. The first contest for the record is in Garden City against Groves High.
