More changes ahead for Valdosta football coaching staff

Published 6:12 pm Wednesday, March 21, 2018

VALDOSTA — The varsity football coaching staff will look, and function, differently at Valdosta High School in the upcoming season.

By the time the Wildcats begin their spring football schedule on May 2, there will be five new faces on the coaching staff — including coordinators on both sides of the ball.

Valdosta has already announced the hire of former Lee County passing coordinator Josh Crawford to take over for Hunter Spivey as the team’s offensive coordinator, and in the coming weeks, the Wildcats will fill out the openings at defensive coordinator, running backs coach, defensive backs coach and an additional wideouts coach.

“I think anytime you lose somebody, you have the chance to improve yourself,” Valdosta head coach Alan Rodemaker said Tuesday.

Only one coaching change was prompted by the Wildcats. Two others, defensive coordinator Adam Carter and running backs coach Thomas Reese, were offered opportunities to move up the coaching ranks.

Creekview tapped Carter as the program’s next head coach, and Reese will get his first shot as an offensive coordinator on former Valdosta OC Tucker Pruitt’s staff at Fitzgerald.

Wildcat defensive ends coach Stacey Duckworth is also set to retire after a long, illustrious coaching career.

It’s the second offseason in a row Valdosta has seen some significant turnover on its coaching staff as it experiences the burden of success following its state championship a season ago.

Assistant coaches rarely stay at one program for a decade anymore, and the moves can be exacerbated when a program focuses on bringing in young, hungry coaches like the Wildcats have in recent years.

And don’t expect Rodemaker’s hiring practice to change anytime soon: he’s emphasized hiring good, energetic, and humble coaches that love kids more than guys that may be stronger in the Xs and Os but lacking in the other qualities.

“So far the guys that we have coming in, the kids have taken to them,” Rodemaker said. “You’re going to see a lot more energy around here. That’s why I hire young coaches, my energy is depleting over time.”

Crawford is the only coach that’s been approved by the Valdosta Board of Education thus far, but he’s had a hand in picking the next running backs coach and the receivers coach that’ll work with current assistant Israel Troupe.

With an offense that’ll look to take to the air much more often this upcoming season, Rodemaker felt it was important to add another wideout coach as they split the position group into left and right.

The Wildcats also plan to convert Duckworth’s position as defensive ends coach into a defensive backs position as DeMario Jones takes over control of the entire defensive line.

Adding a defensive backs coach to the mix also gives Rodemaker the freedom to step back into more of a managerial position overseeing the staff.

“I can spend more time watching both sides of the football,” Rodemaker said. “Heavily involved in defense, of course, heavily involved in special teams, and I can coach coaches better.

“It just kind of gave me a chance to step back a bit.”

Rodemaker will remain heavily involved in day-to-day scheming and game planning, and at least in the short term, he’ll continue to call the defense on Friday nights, although he said he’d eventually like to give up that duty as well.

Entering into his fifth season as a head coach — the third at Valdosta — Rodemaker has learned the importance of delegating tasks to his assistants, in the same vein as Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban, to free himself to oversee everything else.

“I think a guy that’s just concerned about stopping whoever we’ve got to play that week, he’s thinking about it all week, and I’m not,” Rodemaker said with a laugh. “I’m thinking about all the other things that have to go on a day-to-day basis or a weekly basis, whether it be travel or whatever.

“I’m really pulled in a lot of directions. I can really focus on that about 3 o’clock, and those guys are focused on it all day, 24/7.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.