(Photo by Mark Gilliland) Howard’s Head Coach John Starr before the game against Red Bank on September 2, 2016.Like they have so often whenever there’s a life event for either of them, John Starr called his good friend Mark Mariakis for some advice last spring. Starr was mulling over an offer to become the head coach football at Howard and called Mariakis looking for details before leaving a 30-plus-year coaching career in Georgia to cross state lines into the unknown.
“I told him he would be a perfect fit because I know how he builds programs,” said Mariakis, who worked as Starr’s defensive coordinator for four years at Chattooga and later hired Starr to his staff at Ridgeland. “John is my mentor when it came to knowing how to love kids that others turn their back on. He has a way of wrapping discipline in love and giving kids high expectations, and they respond to him.
Mariakis paused and added with a laugh, “Now I’m kicking myself for telling him to take the job, because it just means we’ll have a really tough team in our region with him coaching there.”
Mariakis will take his young Chattanooga Christian team less than two miles up the road tonight to visit Howard, which is beginning to surge under Starr.
Last week the Hustlin’ Tigers blistered Lancaster Christian 63-26, scoring every way imaginable – on the ground, through the air, on a kick return, on a blocked punt return and with two safeties and a fumble return for a touchdown from the defense.