New coaches expect to boost Devils’ defense

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Blue Devils assistant Ashley Anders Murray State
Blue Devils assistant Alonzo Hampton Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette

March 6, 2013

New coaches expect to boost Devils’ defense

Becky Taylor CNHI The Tifton Gazette Wed Mar 06, 2013, 09:45 PM EST

TIFTON — Fans of the Tift County Blue Devils won’t just be seeing new faces on the field next season, but new faces on the sidelines. Coach John Reid has added a pair of new assistants, Ashley Anders and Alonzo Hampton to help out on the defensive side of the ball, working to improve a program that finished 3-7 last year and without any wins in Region 1-AAAAAA. Anders will be defensive coordinator and Hampton is mostly working with defensive backs.

Both come direct out of the college ranks. Hampton spent the last two years at Western Kentucky while Anders was an assistant of Chris Hatcher’s at Murray State.

“My wife and I always knew we’d be back in this area,” said Anders.

Tifton is not a strange place for him. He was an assistant for the Valdosta State Blazers from 2002-6 under Hatcher and did recruiting in the area. Most notably, he is the man who made former Devil Larry Dean a Blazer. When Hatcher went to Georgia Southern, he followed, and then on to Murray State. He had kept Georgia ties in the meantime. He said he and Reid have a mutual friend. From there, “we visited, talked and made it happen.”

It was Anders who brought Hampton to Tifton. “I tell everyone it was fate,” said Hampton. The two had known each other since childhood, playing baseball together in Arkansas. Anders is a native of Hampton, Hampton comes from Warren. Both becoming coaches, “we’d check on each other from time to time,” said Hampton. It became much easier when both accepted jobs in Kentucky.

It will be a new experience for Hampton. He had been seen Tifton, albeit via I-75, last year while traveling to Florida on vacation. Anders came to Tift first, gave his friend a call, then as Hampton said, “things fell into place.”

He said it was still too early to tell who his impact players will be, but he is impressed with what he’s seen.

“They’re young, they’re working hard and they’re building on the things they’ve learned.” He has high hopes for the program, wanting the Devils to be a program that “signs D1 athletes years in and year out.”

Anders said that he’s been very impressed with the defensive line and linebackers in spring practice, singling out Steven Waters, Sam Douglas, Jaelon Johnson, Charlie Massey, Charles King and Devarious Butler. He said the squad was showing good leadership and were working hard in the weight room.

Tift’s record last year does not bother either man. “They were in a lot of games last year,” said Hampton. Anders agrees and said that he believes it is a matter of believing in the program. “As long as the kids accept our core values, the sky’s the limit.”

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