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Dodge, Lincoln take different paths to successful seasons
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When I finalized the two interviews for this week, I just realized that it’s a very “automotive” breakdown of two teams in Class A. ...
First stop is a first-year head coach in Eastman as Phillip Brown took over a program that went 1-9 in the 2023 season. When Rex Hodges was at the end of his run at Dodge County, the Indians had three double-digit win seasons in a four-year period. But they haven’t won as many as eight since.
Brown, in his first year as a head coach ever, has them out of the blocks at 8-0. He reminded me that we’ve crossed paths in the past in a few stops at Thomasville, Colquitt County and Valdosta. But he was an assistant there. He’s the man in charge now.
“I knew we’d be successful, just not this fast,” he admits while he’s watching his son’s game in Cochran. “The kids needed to buy in and allow the idea of them being successful. I’m their third head coach in four years. This season just accelerated the process.
“It took, probably, the first month or six weeks for it to happen. They bought into what we were trying to show them about what the weight room means. They started to understand that and what we mean by ‘culture.’ We have accountability teams now and we had to establish who the leaders are.”
Brown admits there’s still a lot to fix and that Dodge County is a work in progress. But he had five basic tenets he brought to campus: hard work, energy, accountability, resilience and the idea of “team.”
“Eastman is a really, blue collar town. When I started here, I had a small apartment downtown. I would get up at 5 a.m. and you would see the town already moving. You can tell it’s a hard-working town.
“When you’re 1-9 the year before, you understand there’s not a lot of energy going in. You have to put a premium on that. When it comes to accountability, it has to be player-led. That’s tough. With resilience, they lost a lot of close games. How do you build resilience? And with the idea of a team, you need to work together to be successful. In tight games this season, they have found ways to win. I think they’re battle-tested.”
Coach Brown actually told his team Tuesday that he interviewed for four other head coaching jobs in the last three seasons and it was always a goal of his to be a head coach. He has learned from those coaches he was on staff with and instilled their processes as a part of his team-DNA. Former Thomasville and Lowndes head coach Zach Grage and current Valdosta head coach Shelton Felton are on his speed dial if he ever has one of those “head coach”-type questions.
But, if you go and catch a Dodge County game, you’ll see a new head coach that is big on attention to detail: “Yeah, I go over everything and I’m sure I do it to the point I drive myself crazy.”
This first-year staff believes in Eastman to coach hard and love just as much. Top to bottom, they’re all big believers in relationships and that the person next to you, blood or otherwise, is family and you treat them as such.
“We’re around players more than parents are a lot of the time,” Brown admits. “We really are family. My wife works handing out water and she is a big part of it. My kids are on the field. We want players to see that and it really is a neat experience. My wife knows player’s birthdays and we all know that love and support means everything to all of them.”
Brown also has been impressed with the fan base at Dodge. Moms cook breakfast and serve meals to the team and they all stick up for one another. Two brothers on the team had their house burn down on game day last week. By the time the game came around, clothes and shoes had been donated to help out quickly.
Admitting it’s something he doesn’t normally do, Coach Brown stepped out of the locker room at the half last week to take a breath or two. He was in plain sight of the home bleachers and they were full. That sticks with him still.
The team does a lot in the community as well to give back, whether it is visit schools or interact with the local rec department cleaning or fixing things that need it. And while Hurricane Helene missed them (just), the team went to Telfair and Wheeler Counties and handed out supplies.
Together seems to be the way in Eastman and that applies in Lincolnton as well.
Lee Chomskis is coming from a first-year roster of 25 (during COVID) that, probably, had even fewer the year before to a roster in the 50’s this season and a top ten ranking in Division II. The Red Devils are 7-0 and got a bit of news on Tuesday. Their game in Warren County is now on Thursday night because of a lack of full officiating crews for Friday.
“If you told me that we would be 7-0 at the beginning of the year, I would have told you we would have had a shot at it,” Chomskis says. “We have two sophomore offensive linemen who played as freshmen. I think we’re coming off the ball the best we have in our five years here. We’ve had good tight end play. They’re both good blockers. You just don’t know how things will go until we get out there.”
With that initial roster of 25, they couldn’t be as physical at practice as Chomskis would have initially liked because you don’t want to do anything to harm your depth. Now, they can be a little more physical with the veer, mid-line, and wing-T offense they employ. In the Lincoln County offense, it’s just as important to block as it is to get the yards.
Chomskis is pleased with his backfield and its variety of weapons. Three backs ran for more than 80 yards in the win over Lake Oconee Academy. As a team, they ran for 374 yards on 30 carries. Kelby Glaze, Jon Norman, QB Mekhi Wade, and fullback Christian Elam are part of that equation and they’re all coming back for, at least, one more season after this. He’ll have freshman Aiden Jones back for a few more.
“You’ve got to be able to read or throw with this offense,” Chomskis tells me. “You can’t just do ‘buck sweep’ or ‘power’ and expect to go a long way.
“I’m excited and pleased where we are. We only had eight boys in the entire senior class the year before I got here. We have our numbers up and we have five seniors on the roster this year with large junior, sophomore, and freshman classes behind.
“That’s not bad for a school that had 350 kids in it.”
And we’ll watch, a day early, as the game with Greene County is next week -- and it should decide the region title if things go as the Red Devils fans want this week.
Play it safe, everyone... I’ll talk to you soon...
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