GHSF Daily asked Georgia head coaches to answer these four questions. We'll report from a different head coach each day.
Brent Miller, Miller County
1. What is the most memorable game you've been a part of as a player or coach?"My most memorable game would be when I was coaching at Berrien and we literally went from last in the region the year before I was hired as the head football coach to winning Region 2-AA in 1991. We went on to play in the third round of the state playoffs against Seminole County, who was led by Phillip Daniels, who went on to play in the NFL. We were picked to lose by a large margin and instead we intercepted a pass and drove down the field with less than a minute to go and scored on the last play of the game to win. The other thing that made it so special was that Seminole County was my alma mater." [That remains Berrien's only region championship in football.]
2. Which high school coach would you want your son to play for, and why?"I have five daughters, the youngest 10 years old. All of my daughters played in the GHSA in different sports. However, if I had a son I would love for him to play under my head coach, Marcus Holley [Seminole County's head coach from 1965 to 1981]. The main reason is he instilled in us the never-quit attitude and that we could overcome the odds with the right preparation and the right work ethic."
3. What is your pet peeve as a coach or favorite saying/motto?"My favorite saying is one I have grown up believing in: 'The harder you work, the luckier you get.'"
4. Which GHSA policy or high school football rule would you most like to see changed?"Something I would like to see changed is the parity in the smallest classification. As the GHSA recently realigned classifications this past year, we witnessed Class A jump from 54 schools to 86 schools. Most of these [new] schools fell from Class AA. This is nearly a 63 percent increase. In connection, the larger classifications decreased in numbers. Class A was affected the most. The GHSA seems to center their attention on the larger schools on parity, when parity means the most in the single-A classification. If you look at the state playoffs, you will see consistently the largest schools in single A making the playoffs the most. Take this year, for instance. Look how many dropped from AA to single A and are in the playoffs. We have around 250 students here at Miller County playing other schools that have over 500 students. Thus, they have twice as many students to draw from. This creates a very unfair advantage. Macon County is a prime example of a school that dropped from Class AA to Class A this year. Macon has dominated the Class A region this year and could possibly win the state title, where smaller schools have little chance at competing for the state title. It is hard to find enough quality players to compete with the bigger schools. If you have 2,000 students and you are classified with someone with 4,000, which is twice as many as you, you still have a great chance out of 2,000 that you will be able to find 50 players to put a quality team together. I have coached in all classifications in my 33-year career, and I know this to be true. Just as many felt that it was unfair having to compete with private schools because they can recruit. One solution the GHSA might want to consider would be for the subdivision of Class A. The GHSA could use enrollment and make that cutoff at 300."
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