Different methods lead to success for area prep football coaches

Area high school football coaches, from left, Vic Grider (South Pittsburg), Ralph Potter (McCallie), Wayne Turner (Tyner) and Hal Lamb (Calhoun) know what it takes to win a state title — but that doesn't mean their approach to reaching that goal is the same.

Four men, with philosophies as varying as the makeup of the programs they're in charge of, are examples that as the prep football playoffs begin tonight, there is no singular blueprint for claiming a state championship.

The modest number of their fraternity - Calhoun's Hal Lamb, McCallie's Ralph Potter, South Pittsburg's Vic Grider and Tyner's Wayne Turner are the only Chattanooga-area coaches still with the teams they won titles with - is a testament to just how elusive a state championship can be.

Whether coaching at a small, outlying public school, an inner-city public school, a fast-growing, progressive public school or a large private school with a wealth of resources, these Fantastic Four coaches have very different approaches to the game but have tapped into what drives the unique collection of personalities on their roster - kids from various races, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds - to reach a level of success other area programs continue to strive for.

Each has either built or added to his program's tradition, and three of the four (Grider, Lamb and Potter) are the sons of former head coaching legends who have taken old-school lessons from their fathers and meshed them with their own individual style.

"What I can say about the ones I'm familiar with is that they all get their kids to play extremely hard," said Marion County coach Ricky Ross, who worked as the defensive coordinator for Lamb at Calhoun for seven years and has coached against both Grider and Turner. "Whether you're talking inner-city kids or country boys or private-school players, the biggest struggle for coaches is how to get your players to maximize their potential. If you can do that, get your kids to play with passion and effort, you'll be successful, and obviously that's something they've all done."

Vic Grider, 49 (South Pittsburg)

State championships as head coach: 1999, 2007, 2010 in Class 1A

Runner-up finishes: 2009, 2011

Coaching record: 169-46 in 16 years with the Pirates

Highlights: Averaged more than 10 wins in his career. Won 11 district or region titles. Coached 14 Mr. Football finalists, 46 all-state players.

Coaching motto or favorite quote: "When your playing days are over, there will be a dash that represents your career (e.g., 2012-2015), from when it began to when it ended. That dash in between represents everything you did in your career, good and bad. That's how you'll be remembered. What do you want your dash to represent?"

It took two years away from the game for both Grider and the South Pittsburg community to realize how much both needed him stalking the Pirates' sideline. After taking that two-year break, the volatile Grider returned shortly after last year's disappointing finish. Just weeks after returning to the program, he spent 17 days in a local hospital following heart bypass surgery last spring.

Once he recovered, however, the procedure did nothing to curb his intense desire to win.

"It was an eye-opener that I needed to take better care of myself," Grider said. "But once I was cleared to be back at work, I only know one way to coach. We used to have an intimidation air where people didn't like seeing our bus pull up. That's what we've got to get back. We're not there yet, but I knew I had to let the players see the passion of the game and the pride in who you're representing."

Like most 1A programs, Grider must typically find ways to make the most of the talent he has on a small roster. His philosophy is to touch on whatever nerve he can to get his teams wired to play with great intensity and emotion. Despite leading by 35 points at halftime of last week's game, he spent nearly all of the 20-minute break ripping into an inexperienced team for what he felt was lack of focus, pointing out that if they lost three turnovers in a playoff game, "you might as well be ready to turn in your equipment and start practicing basketball!"

Grider has won 81 percent of the games he has coached, and since the TSSAA introduced the mercy rule, his teams have won 57 of 93 games by at least that 35-point margin. He embraces the fact that the black hat he wears during games is also his figurative image with opposing fans.

"I understand that people don't always like you when you win a lot, and I'm fine with people outside our program not liking me," Grider admitted. "You have to have an air about you. It's almost like a character you play. You have to feed off that. It kind of lets you know you've built something good because they don't dislike you if you're not winning and aren't a threat to them.

"We got hammered by (Marion County) this year, and I understood how bad that bunch wanted to beat me from things they said as I walked off the field at halftime. It goes back to respect. From the time you get off the bus, you send a message the whole game. Never let the foot off the throttle. I think our people know what they're getting in me. I'm 110 percent South Pittsburg, and I'm going to fight for this team and our players and our community."

Hal Lamb, 51 (Calhoun)

State championships as head coach: 2011 Class AA; 2014 in AAA

Runner-up finishes: 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012

Coaching record: 192-31 in 16 years at Calhoun; 197-46 overall

Highlights: One of only three people who have played on and coached a Georgia state championship team. He was a two-time all-state receiver at Commerce, winning a title in 1981. He has been named region coach of the year 14 times and led Calhoun to 15 consecutive region titles and 120 straight region wins. The Yellow Jackets haven't lost on their home field since the turf was installed before the 2009 season. Calhoun has had 147 first-team all-state players during his tenure.

Coaching motto or favorite quote: "Those who stay will be champions."

The most extraordinary thing about Lamb's teams is the way they take care of the ordinary aspects of the game. It comes from constantly preaching the fundamentals, the little things he believes make the difference when everything else is equal. He's also a strong believer in finding what each individual player's strengths are and building the team around those, even changing offensive or defensive schemes if necessary, instead of stubbornly keeping the same style every year.

Lamb came to Calhoun with just two years of experience as a head coach, having compiled an unimpressive 5-15 record at Upson-Lee. As an opposing coach he had seen the potential within the Calhoun community, and since taking over the program, he has built the Yellow Jackets into, arguably, the envy of every prep program in the tri-state area and most throughout the Peach State.

The roster has nearly doubled since his arrival, going from about 60 players his first season as coach to an astonishing 119 now. Calhoun has played for seven state championships in the past decade, winning two, and Lamb has players on this year's team who weren't even born the last time the team lost to a region opponent, in 2001.

That was also the year that Lamb recalls as the turning point for the program. Midway through that season, with Calhoun standing a pedestrian 3-3, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of six turnovers to upset Cartersville, the No. 1-ranked team in the state at the time.

"We found a way that night to win, and ever since then we've been on our way," Lamb said. "The confidence those kids gained that night is the foundation for our program. It doesn't matter where or who we play now, the kids expect to win. They have that confidence about them that even if we're down we'll find a way."

Lamb's dad Ray coached for 32 years, winning two state titles at Warren County and another at Commerce in 1981, with Hal catching passes from his brother Bobby, who is now the head coach at Mercer University.

"Most of my style came from my dad for sure," Hal said. "He taught me to treat kids right and teach them to have great character, and that if you have really good special teams and good defense, you'll always have a shot. That's what we built our program around.

"I consider myself a players coach because I've changed with the times. There's a lot of pressure here once we get to the playoffs to win, but the kids enjoy that attention. I think we all kind of feed off of that each week."

Ralph Potter, 52 (McCallie)

State championships as head coach: 2001 in Division II-AA

Runner-up finishes: 2006

Coaching record: 99-59 in 13 years at McCallie; 166-91 overall

Highlights: Potter has guided his alma mater not only to its lone state championship, an undefeated 12-0 season, and its only other appearance in a title game, he has coached six TSSAA Mr. Football award winners or finalists - and his Blue Tornado teams have reached the playoffs every season he has coached.

Coaching motto or favorite quote: "Do not fear the conflict. Do not flee it. Where there is no struggle, there is no virtue. Where love and faith are not tempted, it is not possible to be sure whether they are really present. They are tried and revealed in adversity, in difficult and grievous circumstances." - St. John Chrysostom

Potter is consumed with winning to the point that when McCallie fails to do so, admittedly it takes the rest of the weekend for him to recover emotionally.

"It doesn't stop on just the weekend," Potter clarified. "If we lose, I'll go over every detail of what went wrong. Then I have to decide if I want to keep coaching, then spend the next day or so getting myself ready for everything that goes into preparing for the next game, mentally, physically and emotionally. It takes a lot out of me."

Potter played quarterback for his father, the late Pete Potter, for whom McCallie recently named its field. He sponged as much knowledge of the game - and the mission it can play in the lives of kids on the team - as possible from his dad, as well as other coaching mentors like Baylor's Fred Hubbs and Austin Clark and McCallie's Kenny Sholl.

While leading the Blue Tornado, Potter has produced some of the top individual talent in the city, as well as one of the most consistently tough offenses in the state.

With a mixture of boarding students and players coming together from very diverse backgrounds, one of Potter's toughest jobs is to blend what is seemingly a different team each year into having one common goal.

"Most of our kids didn't grow up playing with each other, so first we have to get them all to buy into our culture here," Potter said. "The most important thing to me is that you have to be true to your own personality. If you try to be something you're not, you won't be successful.

"If I had to describe myself or my coaching style in one word, it would be 'demanding'. Very demanding. The next step after comfortable is lazy. And I hate lazy. You can talk about different methodologies, but you have to be insistent on getting it right."

Potter is like a professor on the field, diagramming ways to attack an opponent's weak spots while playing out potential scenarios still two or three plays away. And his patience is slim for those who don't process the game as quickly as he believes is necessary.

"At McCallie, we like it to be demanding. We like when they're uncomfortable because that promotes maturity and growth," Potter explained. "If they're prepared - they know their role and the opponent - then they can carry out their assignment to make the whole team successful.

"Kids need to be put in situations that are trying and difficult so that when they accomplish something it's uniquely their own. There's a pride and a confidence that comes from that, having earned it. That's the role that a coach has in a kid's life. They don't need another friend. That's not my role. They know I care about them because I put them in situations where they have to respond and grow and learn to be successful on their own and as part of a bigger group."

Wayne Turner, 62 (Tyner Academy)

State championships as head coach: 1997 in Class 2A

Runner-up finishes: 1996

Coaching record: 179-94 at Tyner; 210-116 overall

Highlights: Turner has seen both sides of the spectrum. He coached at Kirkman during a portion of the Golden Hawks suffering through a 51-game losing streak, the nation's longest, in the late 1980s. However, seven years later, he helped Tyner become Hamilton County's first public school to win a state title under the playoff format. The 1997 Tyner team outscored opponents an average of 45-8 with six shutouts, including a 60-0 whipping of Harriman on the road in the semifinals. It was one of six games in which the Rams scored 60-plus points that season; seven of the 27 players on the roster signed college scholarships.

Coaching motto or favorite quote: "Success is not owned, it's rented. Rent is due every day"

The living definition of a gruff, old-school football coach - from a full beard and booming voice growling at every missed block, tackle or perceived blown call by an official - Turner would seem an odd fit at first glance for a team of predominantly black players.

"We didn't see him as white, because there is no color at that program," said Rory Hinton, who played quarterback on the Rams' state title team. "A lot of the reason we won and they're still winning is because it feels like you're a part of one big family."

Turner's father owned a full-service gas station on the corner of 20th and Market Street, and it was there that he learned two lessons from his dad - work hard for what you want, and always treat people the way you want to be treated. Those two lessons have been the backbone of the program he has built at Tyner, where hard work turned what had been underachieving teams into one of the city's most consistent winners.

In the 10 years before Turner took over, Tyner was competitive, going 61-53 and making the playoffs four times. But the Rams had lost all eight postseason games in school history to that point and had never reached the playoffs more than three consecutive seasons.

Turner's work ethic and ability to communicate with players to mold them into a solid unit produced a 104-27 record over the next decade, with the Rams winning fewer than 10 games in a season just once. During that time, they won 60 of 61 region games by an average of 36 points and had 36 players sign college scholarships. Tyner has reached the playoffs 21 of the past 22 years under Turner.

"We've been successful because everybody involved is willing to work for it," said Turner, who once sent a starting lineman back home the night before the state championship game for disciplinary reasons. "Once we got a taste of winning a lot, the coaches and the kids were willing to do whatever it took to keep it going.

"I was hard-nosed and ornery for a while, and the kids adapted to that style of coaching and worked hard. But I've mellowed. Now I know they're going to make mistakes, and I'll still get on them, but when we walk off the field, it's forgotten and I just try to encourage and guide them in the right direction."

After spending the first 15 years of his coaching career at Kirkman, his alma mater, Turner has been in charge of Tyner's program for 26 seasons.

He's not ready to step away from the game or the kids just yet.

"He had a group of inner-city kids who wanted to better themselves and go to college," said former assistant Efrin Stewart. "Coach T was interested in them as people and made sure their grades were straight and that they practiced hard. The respect he has is unreal. He comes off real tough, but I've never met a coach who cares about kids as much as he does."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him at Twitter.com/StephenHargis.