Today’s interviewee is Sprayberry coach Brett Vavra, whose team won Region 6-5A last week with a 38-17 victory over Woodstock. The region title is the Yellow Jackets’ first since 2008. Vavra got the Sprayberry job in 2017. Vavra is a former Sprayberry linebacker, 2000 graduate and member of the school’s athletics hall of fame.
1. What does it mean to get this region title? “It’s obviously really special, not only as a coach but as a former player here and an alumnus. There’s not been a lot of region championships in our history, so for Sprayberry to get one is huge. Sprayberry is one of the older schools in east Cobb, and there’s really a sense of pride in our community. People have been reaching out to us, sharing the love and telling us congratulations. It’s been a good response. I couldn’t be more proud of our kids and coaching staff. We knew going into this season that we potentially had the right personnel and tools to have a good season. That’s how it’s played out so far.”
2. What made you feel optimistic about this season? “We had some good players last year, but we were a little deficient in some areas and knew we had to get better in those, especially the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. So the kids really worked hard getting bigger, faster and stronger. Those skill kids, we knew we had them. Mark Manfred plays corner/wide receiver. Jordan Edmonds is the other corner and plays wide receiver, too. He has offers from everywhere. Then we have Jaden Duckett, our quarterback. He’s very explosive and athletic. Any time those three touch the ball, they can score. But back to our line of scrimmage, our offensive line needed to get more athletic and more experience. Our defensive line, most of them played last year but were so undersized we had to do things schematically to be successful. This year, we don’t have to do that as much because they are bigger and stronger and can play more base football. That’s helped our success.”
3. Manfred and Edmonds are both major Division I recruits. Can you discuss their skill sets and what they bring to your team? “Mark is a senior. He’s already committed to Missouri. Jordan is a junior. He has offers from almost everybody, Alabama, Georgia. Both play corner and wide receiver. They rarely come out of the game. Jordan is 6-3. He just does a great job of using his length and strength and man-pressure technique. He has really good ball skills and ball-tracking ability. No one really touches him because they don’t think they’ll be successful. He doesn’t have a lot of production defensively [tackles, interceptions, etc.] because they don’t throw at him. Mark is almost the same. He’s not as long, but he’s extremely physical. Both can stretch the field and make contested catches. We can get the ball to him on a hitch and he’ll catch it and run away from people.” [Manfred has 32 receptions for 823 yards. Edmonds has 30 for 571].
4. If you were a color commentator covering a Sprayberry game, what would you explain to viewers about this team? What’s the team’s style/identify? “You’re going to see a team that plays extremely physical and extremely fast and decisive. You can see the athleticism and the speed is really good. You’re going to see a team that plays with some grit and passion. It’s a fun group. It’s the best overall group talent-wise that I’ve ever had, for sure.”
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