Cherokee Bluff entered Region 7 last year as a new program walking into arguably one of the most difficult regions in Class AAA. The Bears had three seniors on the roster, a new coaching staff, a new school, a new field, a new locker room and undetermined expectations on how the season would play out.
And like many other first-year programs, Cherokee Bluff struggled to a record of 0-10, 0-6 under head coach Tommy Jones.
But entering 2019, Jones is optimistic, excited and enjoying the ride with his young team.
"I don't know if I've ever had more fun coaching in my career," said Jones. "I think you come to a point where you realize that it's about working the process. It's about being on the journey, and it's about enjoying who you are doing it with and building relationships with the kids. The wins and losses will come over time, but right now we are just committed to do things the right way. We are building this really from the bottom up. And when I say bottom up, I mean we are building this from the junior program to our middle school, all the way to high school. When we build it, we want to build it to last."
Jones has coached for 21 years, with five years at Dacula as the head coach and two years at Dacula as the offensive line coach. He spent seven years at Lumpkin County as the head coach and one year at South Gwinnett as the offensive coordinator. For three years he was the assistant head coach and offensive line coach at Oconee County. He coached at Furman University, his alma-mater, as tight ends coach for two seasons.
In addition to Cherokee Bluff's three seniors, there were just 11 juniors, and more than half the players were freshmen and sophomores. Now the goal is to work through the spring with a year of experience and a rising group of seniors that will lead the way.
Jones answered a few questions by telephone Tuesday:
Q. A winless season is nothing new for a fledgling program. Were you, or the team, discouraged?
A. Well obviously you never want to have a winless season. But at the same time we understand that we are very much in the building phase here at Cherokee Bluff. Just to see the progress from Day 1 in spring practice through the end of the season and what has continued through our off-season has been tremendous. We have just a great group of kids who have bought in and continue to work hard, and you can see their commitment level, work ethic and energy with everything that we do. It has been a real encouragement.
Q. What experiences were gained in 2018 that will be used in 2019?
A. Last year, going into the season we had zero football players who'd played a meaningful snap on Friday nights. We had a handful of kids who had been JV players at the schools where they played but none who had played meaningful starting reps. That tells you where we were. We had three seniors on the roster, a handful of juniors and by the end of the season, we were starting anywhere between 19 and 20 freshman and sophomores. You have to think that experience helps us down the road.
Q. Tell me about the team that you will put on the field in 2019.
A. I think last year, from a numbers perspective, we had roughly 50 players in our program, grades 9-12. Next year, that number will jump ... I'd estimate by about 20 or 25 players. That in itself will allow us to practice differently, and it allows you to compete more in everything that you do, from the weight room, speed and agility drills, practice, the weight room. The level of competition increases, and it helps your team out. Concerning players we have returning, we have just about everyone returning. We lost three starters as seniors. Our quarterback, Connor Boyd, a safety named Justin Murphy and our center, Kyle Jones, all graduated. Everyone else returns. In what you see, typically in young programs like we have right now, are skill players who are able and capable in competing right away. But then you see the deficiency in those young programs, and we are experiencing the same thing in our line of scrimmage. What has been awesome in our off-season is watching our young lineman grow a year. Their numbers in the weight room are increasing and the foot speed is increasing. It's going to be a lot of fun to get out there on day Day 1 and see where we have improved through our off-season.
Q. Looking back at the end of 2019, what would you view as a successful season?
A. I don't make predictions. We just really want to show significant improvement in all phases and put a product on the field that competes, plays with great effort, has a great attitude, really carries themselves well, maximizes all of the intangibles and kind of let the chips fall where they may. We want to make our community proud of the Cherokee Bluff Bears.
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