Today’s interviewee is Kenny Dallas, coach of 2021 Class A Private champion Trinity Christian. The title was the Coweta County private school’s first. Trinity Christian petitioned to play this season in Class 4A, moving up three classifications. His record at Trinity is 52-14.
Kenny Dallas, Trinity Christian head coach
1. With some time to let the 2021 season sink in, what do you feel was the story of that season? “I have a few things that immediately come to mind. First is how incredibly young our school is. Trinity has had only 12 graduating classes, and last year was only our fourth year competing in the GHSA. I accepted the head football job here five years ago believing that we could build something special. Because of our incredible families/students/staff, it has happened faster than expected. Second, I personally have had three sons graduate from Trinity over the last five years. Having my family a part of this building process has been one of the great experiences of my life. Josh and David were both seniors on last year’s team. My youngest son, Zech, was a ball boy, and my wife is my team photographer. The third thing that comes to mind is that as a head coach, I had coached in and lost the state championship three times previously before last season. I remember joking with the team the week of the championship game that I knew how to get to that last game but I just had no clue how to win it. I needed them to show me how.”
2. What went into the decision for Trinity to volunteer to play in Class 4A this season? “I have been coaching in A Private since 2001. Being in a classification that long you certainly get to know a lot of coaches. With the major changes that had happened last offseason – service areas changed, and the multiplier increased – from talking to coaches across A Private, I knew there were a good number of schools that were moving back to GISA. Our leadership team at Trinity felt that there were enough schools leaving that A Private probably would fall apart. We didn’t know how it would be reorganized, but using the new proposed multiplier, we would be a 3A school. When looking at the potential 4A region we would be in, it would put us in a region with a number of schools that are very close to us and ones that we felt could be potential outstanding rivalries – (such as) Whitewater, Starr’s Mill, Fayette County, Troup, LaGrange, etc. In addition to that with Trinity’s growth, we felt that in a few years, with the new multiplier, we may eventually be a 4A school. With both factors, it just made a lot of sense for us to go ahead and request the move to 4A. Of course, this next year we will have 515 kids in our high school competing with schools in our region that are almost all over 1,300. That said, at Trinity we believe ‘iron sharpens iron,’ so we truly consider it an honor to have the privilege to compete with the great schools in our new region.”
3. What’s the outlook and scouting report for this year’s team? “I am extremely excited about our 2022 football team. Even though we are pretty aggressive throwing the football, I am still a pretty ‘old-school’ football coach in that I believe you win by playing great defense, having a great kicking game and minimizing turnovers and self-mistakes. I expect us to be good defensively. We return five starters from an outstanding defense last year (Shawn Braxton, Cam Matthews, Ethan McDowell, Ryan Earl and Aaron Gates). Our defense is led by an incredible coach, Roby Ross. I also expect us to be really good at snapping and punting, which are hidden weapons (Sam Taylor and Josh Taylor).
“Our question mark is having only two returners on offense. Last year, our offense set the record for most points per game average (53.0) in the history of Georgia high school football. There are some big shoes to fill, but our outstanding offensive coordinator, Lance Duncan, and our offensive staff are doing a tremendous job getting nine new starters ready to compete. I believe our offense will get better every day they take the field as they grow in experience and confidence.
“As for the scouting report, the greatest compliment anyone can ever give to me is to tell me that my team plays hard. I tell our kids that there is a difference in running fast and running hard. If you can run fast, God did that, and talent is not an accomplishment. I would hope any scouting report on a Trinity football team would simply say, ‘It is unbelievable how hard those kids play from snap through the echo of the whistle.’ If we do that, I will always be proud of my young men and coaches.”
4. The offense must replace your son David, who was the Class A Private Offensive Player of the Year and now a freshman at Georgia Southern. Who is your new quarterback, and what is his skill set? “Our new quarterback is Henry Brodnax. Henry is an outstanding young man, outstanding leader and is our QB1. At Trinity we have a little saying that sums up our culture that we are trying to build: ‘Champions are built when no one is looking.’ Henry has patiently played JV the last three years and during that time has done a tremendous job learning the system. Henry is a young man that knows how to read a defense, he knows where his playmakers are, and he gets rid of the ball fast and on time. I am extremely excited for young men like Henry who patiently pay the price behind the scenes, and now it is his time to lead us.”
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