Northeast eagles finally get coach

[daniel24]

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs....NEWS01/80623018

[theydontcare]

this program reminds me of the movie major league. a female wanting it destroyed, and a man put in the job to only find hardship. however, maybe this will be another great football movie. the community wishes you boys the best.

[Lost Old Dad]

Congratulations Coach and good luck this year. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

Hopefully like the movie 'Major League' things will turn around, but I don't think having a picture of the Principal with removeable parts of the clothes will help! /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

 

Y'alls Principal an ex-stripper to? /roflolk.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflolk:" border="0" alt="roflolk.gif" /> How about the AD? She moonlighting like the Biology teacher in another HS football movie?

 

On a serious note to the PLAYERS. Now is the time for you to work and SHOW folks how wrong they are about y'all. You have the support not only of your fans, but also football fans all over the state you will never know but are still pulling for y'all. Now show us something GREAT!

[theydontcare]

trust me, the principal is not what the world would like to see with out clothes, and the A.D. is not what you would call a mid summer nights dream. good luck johnson, and the city of clarksville wishes you the best of luck.

[HesterBeSeeinULater]

Congrats to the kids at Northeast. FINALLY something positive has occurred.

 

LOD...........would that movie be "Varsity Blues"????????????? /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

[LSMFT]

Let me see if I get this right. You just hired a head coach that used to be an assistant coach and he left last year(?) to go to a cross town rival and now after 7-8 months you hire a man that, according to the local newspaper just realized he was ready for the job after not being ready for the last 7-8 months. Yep, I'd say the Clarksville School System is fubar'ed.

[wingman10]

Good luck to Coach Johnson

[theydontcare]

he will need it!

[fromthetop2]

Nice to see the administration at the school finally got around to hiring a football coach. Unfortunately, Coach Johnson now has to wait for the dead period to end before he can start being in contact again with his players. This little fact may not have been known by the administration, or maybe the significance of it flew right by them (again). They seem to think since football practice doesn't start until the end of July, he will have plenty of time to organize a team.

 

What about a staff, or do they think they have enought teachers willing to stay after school to help for a few minutes?

[Golfendude]

All the BEST coach. The BIG ONE sure did like ya.. Make them Eagles fly again...

 

Players I think you have a good one... It's time to go work make it happen. GOOD LUCK

[coachfoozeball]

Good Luck to the new coach.

[navygold11]

After one of the longest and exhaustive coaching searches in school history, Northeast High has finally found its man.

 

 

The Eagles named Bryan Johnson its new head football coach Monday after approval from the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System.

 

"It's awesome," Northeast athletics director Kim Yarbrough said. "It's been a rough road, but we finally have a guy we feel fits this program perfectly. It came down to a couple of applicants, but coach Johnson was the one who stood out the most."

 

Yarbrough and Northeast principal Galea Jefferies made the decision to offer Johnson the position last week, but the school system has to approve all head coaching hires. Their final approval ended an eight-month search.

 

"I'm certainly looking forward to the challenge," Johnson said. "Right now the kids are in the mandatory dead-period, but once that's over we need to hit the ground running."

 

Johnson will have little time to implement his scheme once the dead period ends in early July. While much of the city schools have benefited from a spring practice with its head coaches, Northeast has relied on assistant coaches from last year's Paul Watkins-led staff to keep players motivated and conditioned.

 

"They've actually done a great job from what I've heard," Johnson said. "I'm extremely grateful to them for that and I'm really excited about how those kids stuck together despite not having a head coach."

 

Assistant coach Henry Mitchell was named interim coach throughout the spring drills with the understanding Northeast would be actively searching for a permanent head coach. Johnson has made no decisions on whether he'll retain any of Northeast's current assistants.

 

"I'm not at liberty to say that yet because I haven't talked to them to find out what their desires are," Johnson said. "I'm looking for good coaches and most of all good people."

 

Johnson, who spent last season as the offensive line coach at Clarksville High and was the head track coach this spring, will have one coach roaming the Eagles sideline. He'll bring former Wildcats offensive coordinator Issac Shelby to Northeast.

 

"We lost two quality coaches," Clarksville High coach Jim Snider said. "But Bryan's a mature, very bright young man. He'll do a good job at Northeast."

 

Snider doesn't expect any other assistants to be pulled from his staff, and Johnson said he's made no efforts to bring any more Wildcat coaches to Northeast, but Snider does have shoes to fill.

 

The Wildcats coach will shift defensive secondary coach Ken Busby to offensive coordinator, while he looks for a new offensive line and defensive backs coach.

 

"We wanted to have (Bryan) on the staff for a few more years, but it didn't even last that long," Snider said. "When you've been blessed with a good program, you lose good assistants. But the good things is that you have a lot of coaches that want to coach for a good program."

 

As for Johnson, he knows that his work will be cut out for him with a little more than a month to prepare for the season opener once the dead period ends.

 

However, he's not worried about the disadvantages a late start brings.

 

"I don't think it'll matter that much," he said. "I'm an educator first. I approach the season like I would approach the classroom.

 

"If I had something to teach in a short amount of time, then I have to start with the basics first and build from there. In football, if you can run, block and tackle, you're going to win games. It's that simple. Those are the fundamentals and that's what we start with, regardless of scheme."

 

Johnson is a product of Overton High School's football program, graduating in the spring of 2000. By the fall of that year he joined the Austin Peay football team and played until 2004. Johnson was hired as an assistant football coach under former Eagles coach Steve Kordisch before Watkins took over in Johnson's second year with the Eagles.

 

Johnson then took a year off from football to finish school before he approached Snider, who had just finished taking his team to the Class 4A state quarterfinals.

 

With Johnson guiding the offensive line, the Wildcats finished 10-2, losing to Maplewood in the second round of the playoffs last November.

 

Meanwhile, Northeast finished 0-10 in Watkins' swan song, struggling to score points despite talent. A rough Class 5A schedule with region opponents that included Ravenwood, Brentwood, Franklin and Independence took its toll on the Eagles.

 

Watkins' desire to spend more time with his family led to his resignation, but struggles with team parents, the administration and team morale also factored into his decision.

 

"Some things will change as far as schemes go," Johnson said.

 

"But we'll give the kids time to adjust. They've already shown the dedication to this program and that's a huge sign for any coach coming into the program. I can't wait to get started with them."