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Josh Alexander has taken Athens Academy to the playoffs each year since becoming head coach in 2015.
Credit: Athens Banner-Herald
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Athens Academy's No. 47 aiming to be No. 1
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If you go anywhere near Athens Academy, you will likely see them. Gray T-shirts bearing the number “47.” They belong to senior members of the Spartans football team. Head Coach Josh Alexander says it’s just an ugly gray shirt, but it is an Athens Academy tradition, and it carries great meaning.
“We’ve played 47 years of football here at Athens Academy and so it's ‘Team 47,’” says Alexander. “Each year you get this senior group that is 41, 42, 43, etc., so this is 47. We always talk about what thumbprint or what mark you will leave on this school and how will this team be remembered. It means a lot to them.”
I can’t begin to count the number of times that I have heard high school seniors express a desire to make a lasting mark on their school with a memorable athletic achievement that will become legendary as the years go by. The Spartans have the makings of something special.
“We have a really good group of seniors that just play well together and have played well together,”
says Alexander. “We’ve grown them up a little bit over the last few years. It’s been fun watching them grow but that it has a lot to do with their character and the way they play the game. They like playing with each other and for each other and they love playing football for Athens Academy.”
Since Alexander took over the program in 2015 each season has concluded with a berth in the state playoffs. Last season’s team posted a 6-5 record, the fewest wins in a season in Alexander’s tenure. Perhaps that is part of what has led to the 5-0 start to the 2024 season, after a productive spring and summer.
“It was a very good off season,” recalls Alexander. “We had a lot of kids make it out 100 percent of their days in the summertime. Our kids love the weight room. We went to multiple 7 on 7s and had some success there. It was a fun summer. “
I would think that some of the fun was diminished when the schedule was unveiled. In a new region (8-Class A Division I), with the likes of Elbert County, Rabun County and Commerce, the season opener was against always tough Aquinas. That led to the question: Who made the schedule?
“I made this schedule,” admits Alexander. “Sometimes that is probably one of my least favorite things to do when it comes to coaching football. You try to look at geography and people who are a good match up for you to play. You don't to bite off two much, but you're challenged. Aquinas is an excellent program, and James (Leonard) does a great job. The programs are a lot alike. People in the school were a lot alike and it's just a good game. “
The Spartans beat Aquinas 45-22. In fact, Athens Academy scored 40 or more in three of their first four contests. This year’s team has several talented playmakers and a solid signal caller.
“We've got a senior quarterback in Hampton Johnson,” says Alexander. “He has had a good season. We've had 500 yards of offense in every game and a lot of that has to do with him. He's playing like a senior right now and we really appreciate that. We have two senior running backs Jamari Welch and Jeremiah Wingfield that are running the ball and three wide receivers that are playing really well. Keyon Standifer at one time was one of the top wide receivers in the state of Georgia, when it comes to yardage, he’s a sophomore. K.J. Whitehead is a guy that sort of makes our offense go. He plays the H back and wide receiver and Bryan McClendon does an excellent job. He's the one that had the big run Friday night against Commerce and just every week shows up and puts his hard hat on and goes to work.”
It’s a short drive from Athens Academy to Commerce, but the series is storied. This year’s game was the 29th meeting between the Spartans and Tigers. For Alexander, the matchup carries another meaning. It’s a trip into a Friday night Wayback Machine.
“This was my seventh time playing them in the last 10 years,” recalls Alexander. “It's just hard to play up there. It's a tough place to play because Commerce community loves their Tiger Football. They just have really talented football players and just a really physical and well-coached team every year. It just takes you back. It's such a neat place to play. The stadium was packed on both sides and there were people in lawn chairs, and it was 10-deep up against the fence. It took me back to the Washington-Wilkes and Lincoln County game, when I worked at Washington Wilkes. I’m not saying that this game is the caliber rivalry that game is, but it just took me back to that, small schools, small towns, and really neat football.”
That’s right folks. Those of you who think that outlet shopping is the most exciting thing to do in Commerce have never been there on a Friday night. While the coach was soaking in the atmosphere, he understood his team was not going to make it out of there without a fight.
“We had a lot of things go our way early,” recalls Alexander. “In the first half we came out, did some not so good things and got a bunch of flags thrown on us. We got behind the sticks and couldn't do much with it. They did a good job in the second half and ended up tying the game up. We had to go down on the last try and score. Bryan McClendon made an unbelievable run to score the last touchdown. A couple plays before that, we had a big throw from Hampton to Keyon Standifer that left us about a yard short. We converted the fourth down for a first down. We were trying to run the clock and not give them the ball back, so we go down to score and when we score, we decide to go for two and won it that way.”
The 29-28 win improved the Spartans record to 5-0, 1-0. It also gave Alexander what he needed to see from his team. The first five games had provided an adequate test.
“You don’t know until you play good people,” says Alexander. “You really don't know where you stand. We've played some good teams with talent all over the field. It does not get any better than that football team. They have three of the best backs I've seen in a few years. Not just one back, they have three of them. Then you look at their offensive line and defensive line, and they're just big and physical. It was a real test for us, because of the size of our kids. We’re not always the biggest up front. We have kids that are of good size, and they fight hard, but Commerce’s players were big and physical. We had been waiting for this game all year and we just wanted to see what we could do. We got lucky and won it.”
Call it luck it you want to, but with an unblemished record the rest of the teams on the schedule will have their eyes wide open when it’s time to face the Spartans. They should expect to get their best each week. The coach made sure to remind them.
“We won a big game Friday night against Commerce,” says Alexander. “But there's absolutely zero people in the world that care about that game now. So, we'll go out today and they'll have the hardest practice they've ever had since they've been at this school. That's sort of our goal. Go out there and make it as difficult on them as we can on the Monday before Oglethorpe. And that's what we'll do. We'll go out there for two hours and get after it as hard as we can and as fast as we can and try to run 200 plays in 45 minutes. That's our goal.”
It's a goal in a series of goals that appear to be laid out for this Athens Academy team. Twice Josh Alexander has led the Spartans to the state championship game only to experience a heartbreak. It could be a breakthrough for the coach and would also provide the seniors with that lasting thumbprint on the school. Who knows, there might even be a gray “47” T-shirt that ends up framed and hanging in a hallway. Now wouldn’t that be something.
“Those are always the ultimate goals,” says Alexander. “Win one game at a time, win a region championship. make the state playoffs and play for a state championship. If you have some luck on your side, you win a state championship. This is a very mature team. There's a lot of seniors that have played a lot of football. Are they talented enough? I don't know that. I know that they have the grit to win a state championship, and they want to win a state championship. If you can start with that you’ve won over half the battle. It's about the draw in the playoffs and where you fall and where you're playing and weather and luck and everything else. I think this group is mature enough to win a state championship.”
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