DALTON, Ga. — These should be good times at Southeast Whitfield High School. Test scores are up yet again, showing the administration’s academic plans are working. As a result, more students are going on to college and the school’s academic rating is attracting more students.
There is, however, something still missing in this south Dalton community, and though a strong football program isn’t paramount to a high school’s ultimate success or failure, its absence sits over the school like a nuclear cloud. It’s something that gnaws at principal Alan Long.
“The frustrating thing to me is, when you look at our test scores and the academic side, we’re one of the best high schools around,” Long said. “But we don’t have that reputation as one of the best schools because of athletics, and specifically football.
“We’ve got great kids and a wonderful community that deserves some success. Like it or not, football is a big part of that with every school.”
The Raiders are, for the fourth thime this decade, searching for that right person to lead the program. Jon Lovingood informed Long recently that, for family reasons, he was resigning after two seasons to take an assistant’s position at Trion. Lovingood’s record was 3-16, following a five-year run with two other coaches that produced an 8-42 mark.
Since 1990, the program is 33-149-1. The Raiders last made it to the playoffs in 1985. In other words, many principals and coaches have tried to solve this problem, which becomes even more glaring when compared to the high level of success at neighboring Dalton.
Long, who was a successful basketball coach before getting into administration, believes he knows what it will take to turn the program around.
“It will take finding someone with a lot of energy and enthusiasm who is willing to develop a tremendous love and passion for the school and the kids,” he said. “We need a tremendous community builder. Every coach wants to win, but we need someone who is willing to forget about the coaching ego of wins right now and concentrate on building. Long term, you’ve got to convince all those youngsters out there that they want to be Raiders.”
Southeast’s suffering is not an isolated occurrence in northwestern Georgia. Two other schools short on recent football success, LaFayette and Dade County, are also searching for that right person to head their programs.
Since George Hoblitzell took the Wolverines to the Class AA playoffs for the only time in school history in 1999, Dade is 13-67 under four coaches. LaFayette, searching for a successor to Tommy Welch (4-26 in three seasons), is 25-75 over the past 10 seasons and hasn’t reached the playoffs since Rayvan Teague took the Ramblers there in 1994. The school is moving next school year up to Class AAA, where it will compete against several natural rivals, including Walker County school Ridgeland.
It’s an opportunity, former Ramblers star and current athletic director Jeff Suttle says, for the program to start over and begin to build something special. And, like Long, Suttle believes the best coach will be one willing to work for the long haul.
“We’re looking for somebody willing to put the time in and build a relationship with the community,” Suttle said. “We need to get the youth back playing football and find a way to keep those kids involved through high school.”
Suttle knows what a strong football program can mean to a school.
“It’s very important,” he said. “It sets the pride and morale for the students, and it’s something all the other sports can feed off of. It makes a school exciting to have a successful football program. We’ve got a great school, and a strong football program would only make it better.”
Helping Long and Suttle remain optimistic is recent evidence that hard-to-believe turnarounds do happen. Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe did so under John Allen. Hal Lamb turned Calhoun into a powerhouse, and Mark Mariakis is in the process of making Ridgeland an annual winner.
“I know it can happen,” Long said, “because there have been some programs who have turned it around with the right guy. Look at Mark Mariakis and Ridgeland. He brings unbelievable energy and enthusiasm to his job. It can be done.”
Mariakis has learned from trial and error, and while he sees no special formula for turning around a program, he does know there are a few basics that have to be in place.
“I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum,” said Mariakis, who has taken the Panthers to the playoffs the past two seasons. “At Ridgeland, that first year, we were at 1-9, but we realized there were a lot of great things happening and the kids bought into it as well, so there was patience in what we were doing. That trust paid off.
“What I’ve found is you have to have immediate support from the administration, which we’ve had from day one at Ridgeland. You have to get everybody — the administration, teachers, students and parents — to believe in what you’re doing. One of the biggest things is, when the storms do come, you can’t have a lot of turnover. It’s not easy, especially when you’re dealing with 100 kids in a program, to have that continued support, but you’ve got to have it.
“And once it does turn around, it means everything to the school and community.”
Lindsey Young is a sports writer at the Chattanooga Times Free Press who started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press 24 years ago. He covers the Northwest Georgia prep beat and NASCAR. Lindsey’s hometown is Ringgold, Ga., and he graduated from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. He received an associate’s degree from Dalton Junior College (now Dalton State) and a bachelor’s degree in communications from UTC. He has won several writing awards, including two Tennessee Sports ...
