Knowing that defense has always been at the heart of South Pittsburg’s football success, it was only fitting that on the day before Valentine’s Day, Pirates head coach Wes Stone made a house call that would assure the program’s identity continued.
It was last February when Stone — believing assistant coach Stephen Britton, the defensive coordinator for last year’s unbeaten run to the TSSAA Class 1A state championship, would not be returning — made an impromptu road trip that paved the way for the possibility of the program winning back-to-back titles for the first time.
Nervous about the prospect of filling such an important role on the staff so late in the offseason, Stone made the half-hour drive through the winding back roads of Rising Fawn, Georgia, to pay an unannounced visit to Shawn Peek, who had been South Pittsburg’s defensive coordinator for five years before leaving to take over at Chattooga, a GHSA program.
After leaving Chattooga, Peek had just finished his first year as an assistant on the Dade County staff and was not actively looking to make another move. But Stone, ever the persistent salesman, would not take no for an answer.
“I knocked, and Coach Peek looked shocked when he came to the door,” Stone said. “He lives so far back in the country that I don’t think him and his wife get many people coming to visit. We sat on his front porch for about two hours, and I went over all the reasons why he should come back.