Today’s interviewee is South Atlanta coach Brad Stephens, whose team defeated Pace Academy 22-14 last week. The victory was South Atlanta’s first over a top-10 team in school history. South Atlanta’s win total has improved in each of Stephens' first four seasons at the school, and the 7-4 finish in 2019 set a school record for wins.
Brad Stephens, South Atlanta head coach
1. What does the victory against Pace Academy mean to your team, and what has the response been? "First, I need to thank our superintendent, Dr. Lisa Herring, and our city athletic director, Jasper Jewell, for staying the course and supporting us to play fall sports in the City of Atlanta. My principal, Dr. Patricia Ford, assistant principal over athletics, Phillip Braziel, and my athletic director, Michael Reddick, they have supported me, my staff and my players since day one.
"We as a staff have been telling these kids since day one that we can play with anybody, and we proved it last Friday night. Friday was about the last four-and-a-half years of building a program and believing in ourselves. Now we are 1-0 in region play. Because of COVID-19, and DeKalb County starting late, we as a region voted to count our last six games for region play.
''The response to winning Friday has been great. I have received a lot of texts and phone calls. My phone has really not stopped since Friday. People who know me understand my passion for South Atlanta football and how badly my staff and I wanted to turn this program around."
2. How did the game play out? What do you feel gave your team the edge in the end? “The game plan my assistant coaches put together worked. My defensive coordinator, Darrell Ransom, along with my defensive staff did not give the quarterback time to throw. Offensively, my offensive coordinator, Corey Chester, called a great game. We just did what we do, establish the run game, and we threw the ball when we wanted to, not when we had to. Once our kids saw that we could play with them, they stayed the course and fought for four quarters. It was a great team win Friday. We finished the game.”
3. You came to South Atlanta when the football program had not had a winning season in more than 20 years. What attracted you to the job? “In 2016 when I was at Stockbridge, after we lost game 14, I found out the South Atlanta job was open and went to my head coach, Kevin Whitley at the time, and asked him if he thought I was ready. He said yes. I applied, and the rest is history. I was looking for an opportunity to be a head coach.”
4. What do you feel that you and your staff have done to get it to this point, where you’ve made three straight playoff appearances and are now challenging top-10 teams? “From day one, I have stressed to my coaches about building relationships with the kids. I feel we also brought discipline and structure to the program. If you have seen us play, we keep it simple offensively and defensively. We always stressed the 3 C’s at South Atlanta – BE Committed, Coachable and Compete.”
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