The juniors on the New Hope High School football team want to be heard.
If they have there way, they will talk to New Hope High Principal Matt Smith today to discuss a list of eight questions and issues they have with Smith’s decision not to renew first-year head coach Shawn Gregory for the 2014 season.
On Friday, Smith informed Gregory by voicemail that he would recommend he not be retained for next season. On Tuesday, New Hope junior defensive back Jeremy Newton and some of his classmates put together a list of concerns they have about the decision and the football program. Newton said the students attempted to meet with Smith on Tuesday but were told Smith had to leave school early for a doctor’s appointment. He said he and his classmates would try to meet with Smith this morning in an attempt to help resolve the uncertainty about their head coach.
“(The decision not to renew Gregory as football coach) really surprised me because of all the experience coach Gregory has coaching in the NFL, in college, and in high school,” Newton said. “He did so much for our program this year.”
New Hope finished 4-7 and 2-5 in Class 5A, Region 1 and failed to qualify for the playoffs. Still, Newton pointed to the fact the Trojans were 3-8 in 2012 and 4-7 in 2011. He also said Gregory helped the team get new uniforms and sweat suits and helped organize new fundraisers. He hopes the players’ efforts in voicing their concerns will have a positive effect on the situation.
“Maybe it will open (Mr. Smith’s) eyes to see coach Gregory is not just coaching us to be football players,” Newton said. “He is coaching us to be better men and that he is making an impact on our lives.”
Newton said he typed up the list of questions and issues Tuesday after speaking with Gregory. He said he didn’t get a chance to send it to Smith. He hopes the players will stick together and show their support for Gregory, a New Hope High graduate, who was in his second season as a football coach at the school. Gregory served as defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator for head coach Michael Bradley in 2012. The Lowndes County School Board approved Gregory’s hiring in March 2013.
Newton hopes most of the team will be able to attend the February meeting of the Lowndes County School Board so they can make their feelings about Gregory known. He said most of the team’s junior class contributed to the list and that it was easy to put together, although he still isn’t sure what happened to create the situation.
“He’s not getting enough time,” Newton said. “He turned around a program that wasn’t really good and got us some wins that some people thought we weren’t going to get this year. We were close in a whole bunch of games. We just couldn’t finish.”
Newton said he feels strongly enough about playing for Gregory that he would consider not playing next season if Gregory isn’t at the school.
“A lot of my teammates and peers have all decided if coach Gregory is not the coach we’re not playing,” Newton said.
Junior Stone Sisson feels equally strong about Gregory and was equally surprised to learn their coach wasn’t going to be renewed for next season.
“I thought he was going to be here for a number of years,” Sisson said. “I didn’t know there was a problem with him. I still don’t know the problems they have with him.”
Sisson said the players “love” coach Gregory and had to make sure their voice was heard, so they came together to put their thoughts on paper. He said he isn’t sure if Smith knows how much the players want Gregory as their coach, which is why he believes a meeting with the principal will help.
“He is the best coach I have ever had,” Sisson said. “He doesn’t only teach us how to act on the football field, but he also teaches us how to act off the field.”
Newton hopes the players can find a way to convince Smith that Gregory is the coach they want for next season and many more after that.
“What is the point in bringing in a new coach so that we will have three different head coaches in three years?” Newton said. “All we can do it build off what we learned from coach Gregory and get better and better and execute our plays and finish our plays. I feel he strongly impacts my life and gets a lot of players to the next level because he has the connections on every level.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
The following is a list of questions/issues New Hope High School football players put together to give to New Hope High School Principal Matt Smith:
1 What are your expectations for this football program in the next 5 (sic) years?
2 Why isn’t coach Gregory in the high school like the rest of the past Head Football Coaches (sic)?
3 After a decent first year with a better record than coach Bradley’s first year and his last two why are you not going to recommend him to come back for another season?
4 With new uniforms, the tunnel, new fundraisers experience and knowledge of the game of football why would you not want him back?
5 He is not just coaching us he is teaching us about life and the real world and how to become successful young men isn’t that what the end goal is to win games and create good men?
6 why was his request for a new locker room to be built denied we have players catching staff infection in their own locker room?
7 If he is fired there is a possibility of NH not having a team next year because most players are either going to go to a new school or simply not play?
8 How will look (sic) on your part as the principal?
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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