FOOTBALL
There’s plenty of new to go around when it comes to the Greyhounds coaching staff going into the summer and coming away from the spring. The defensive side of the ball is no exception with a good part of the coaching staff being new.
Leading that newly minted staff?
Defensive coordinator Will Conner, who joined the Greyhounds earlier this year after coming from Bleckley County. One piece of chemistry in hand, however, is that Conner and defensive backs coach Pat Jordan previously coached together at Crisp County for two seasons.
Also new? The defensive scheme that Jones County gave fans a taste of earlier this month during their spring game – the multiple-odd man front that involves either 3-3 of 3-4 alignments.
“There’s lots of checks and changes and pressure packages.
We want to get multiple kids on the field, too,” Conner said. “I like to try and play 20-to-21 kids to keep us fresh for the fourth.”
According to Conner, a good part of the defensive scheme had been installed prior to the spring scrimmage.
“We probably have about 87 percent in, but we only used around 10 percent of it (in the spring game),” Conner said. “The kids have a high football IQ.”
There’s something else that Conner has been pleased with – effort.
“Getting here in the middle of the year and only being with the kids for a little over a month, I’ve been so pleased with their buy-in and effort,” Conner said.
“They’re flying around. It’s a great group of kids, and when you have that, you have something special.”
Conner says that the atmosphere and culture around the Greyhounds program had much to do with his decision to come to Gray to join the staff of head coach Mike Chastain, who he says is very similar to Bleckley County head coach Vonn Lassiter.
“Coach Chastain, I have always thought highly of him as not just a play caller, but the type of man he is. I’ve worked with Vonn Lassiter, and he and Mike are really close,” Conner said. “I love the culture that he has built here.
It’s nice to coach in that atmosphere.”
