Interview with a High School Football Coach
Interview with a High School Football Coach
I had the opportunity to interview Corey Johnson, the defensive coach and college recruitment liaison for Stephenson High School.
Below is a transcript of our conversation:
Q: What made you want to become a coach?
A: My current head coach inspired me to become a high school football coach. Coach Gottrell, the head coach of Stephenson, coached me over twenty years ago when I was in high school. I find it an honor that he would ask me to join his coaching staff and play such an integral role.
Q: What experience did you have before you became a coach?
A: As I just shared, I played high school football, but I’ve actually been playing football since I was in 9 years old in little league. I also played on the defensive line in college. Before joining the coaching staff at Stephenson, I coached a little league football team (boys age 13 – 14) for six years.
Q: How did you prepare for coaching at this competitive level?
Well, I pull from my years of experience playing the game of football. However, as time changes, some things change and others remain the same. I order the latest instructional DVDs to learn new and proper techniques, and I also show them to my players. I also have access to some present and past NFL players, and we invite them out to our practices to work with the players and share their knowledge and expertise.
Q: What has been the highlight of your coaching career?
Well, with my little league football team, we won 4 Championships out of my six years as the head coach. With Stephenson, we haven’t won a State Championship yet, but every year we are contenders during the playoff season. My most recent highlight was getting 29 out of 32 seniors from the Class of 2010 full scholarships to play football in college.
Q: What important lessons have you gained from your years as a football coach?
I have learned how important it is to coach the whole child – not just the athlete on the field, but the man off the field. The young men we work with come from some tough situations, so it fills my heart to see some of them sign scholarships to go to college, when I know there was a high probability that they would have not even finished high school if they were not apart of the Stephenson football family. The parents and the students tell us this all the time. My coaching experience has given me such inspiration and motivation in my own life.
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