Relationships key for local football coaches

Published 11:00 am Monday, August 22, 2022

TIFTON — Athletics is more than about winning and losing. That is the belief of both Tift County’s Noel Dean and Tiftarea Academy’s Erik Soliday, who spoke Thursday at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture as part of Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce’s August Membership Meeting Tailgate.

The duo brought much experience with them into their speeches. Soliday is in his fifth year and Tiftarea and have been a head coach for more than 30. Although Dean enters only his second year in Tifton, he has more than 30 years leading teams, much of that experience in Michigan at programs Bendle and Lowell. Combined, Soliday and Dean have won five state championships.

“We’re certainly looking forward to another year,” said Soliday. “There’s certainly been a bunch of them. I’m just as excited now as I was in my first one.”

Dean said he has enjoyed being in Tifton since his hiring in early 2021. “It’s been a great year and a half since we’ve been down here,” he said. “Won a national championship (Georgia Bulldogs) and a World Series (Atlanta Braves). I’m really proud of that,” Dean joked.

Since arriving, Dean said he had it reaffirmed that, “Relationships matter.”

“That’s the critical piece that we have to have with our kids at Tift County High and Tift County Schools,” he said. Dean said coaches have to be more involved with kids’ lives. That is not just at the high school level. Blue Devils coaches and players made multiple visits to the system’s elementary schools, building a community.

Both coaches said they would have young lineups in 2022. Seeing progression in these players is naturally something both coaches want.

Numbers are down for varsity at Tift, with 12 seniors part of the team. That is part of the process for Dean. “A certain standard of excellence is what we’re asking for,” he said. Dean asks the same dedication of his coaches as he does his players. “I believe when kids know you love them and care about them that they’ll play hard and they’ll do the right things.”

Numbers are strong for the younger teams in the Tift program.

“That’s OK,” said Soliday about the youth. “Young kids have a way of getting better every week.” Soliday said it was fun to watch them improve, both as players and in the classroom.

Tift and Tiftarea had plenty to be excited about in 2021. The Panthers of Tiftarea advanced to their fourth consecutive GISA (now GIAA) semifinal. The Blue Devils went 6-5, their first winning season since 2018.

Soliday said the semifinal streak would serve as motivation for this crew. “Nobody wants to be that team that drops the ball,” he said.

Leadership was part of both coaches’ talks.

Soliday said that leadership is not automatic for senior players. It has to be earned. Practicing is easy, Soliday said, but leaders show in tough situations. He gave a Biblical example. “Probably the greatest leader ever was Moses,” he said. “Splitting the water was easy. Getting them to go through there was the hard part.”

Dean said he had seen the improvement over the summer between Lowndes scrimmages. “But we’re not done yet,” he said, “and we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Each coach said that if they practice and work right, wins and losses would take care of themselves. They reflected on their philosophies in coaching as well.

Dean said he thought about why he coached football.

He said his wife and himself, with their children all out of high school, wanted another challenge, one outside of their comfort zone: “We wanted to continue to grow into our 50s.”

There is a long build ahead of them with the Blue Devils, he said. “We’re here to make Tift County proud of the way we act and the way we behave. All of those things matter.”

Dean related the story of his first quarterback Derik Baker, at his first school, Bendle, a school located in Flint, Mich. They have remained close over the years, through college at Columbia and Dean attended his wedding.

“Why we coach? It isn’t about wins and losses,” said Dean.

Stability is something Dean values. He pointed out that nine of the 11 head coaches he will be up against this year are in their first years at their programs. The only two with more years at their school than him as Northside’s Chad Alligood (hired in 2020) and Dean Fabrizio at Lee County (hired 2009).

“Why I coach is for relationships,” he said. “What I’m about is relationships. Why I show up every day is because there is some kid is counting on me to change the course and direction of their day. If I can do that with a smile, or a handshake, or ask them about a class, those things matter more than talking about Xs and Os.”

It is important for Dean that football players be more than athletes. He tries to limit his football talk with his squad to actual football functions. An audience member asked him about the football team’s academics. Dean said that currently — out of 125 players taking four classes each — only five of those grades were below a 70. That feat is even more remarkable, he said, considering that this is really only the first normal year of high school for the junior class after two years of pandemic stops and starts.

Soliday had an admission.

“Football is hard to win,” he said. “Sometimes, you take it for granted when you do win… Winning’s really not normal when you think about it. It’s really the opposite. Most people don’t win. You look at every race, there’s only one winner.” 

Soliday pointed out there are more than 120 NCAA Division 1 football teams. At the end of the year, only one holds up the national championship trophy. 

“You have to do extraordinary things to win. You have to be different, you have to do things different, you have to act different, you have to practice different and you have to prepare different.”

Getting players to excel at all of these things can be difficult, he said.

Dean referred back to quarterback Baker. “He believed in something he had never seen before,” he said. “He was willing to sacrifice and do the things necessary for something he could only be told would be something we could do.

“That’s the kids I have right now. The kids that are staying are believing in something they have not seen. So, they have to buy in.”

Tift County Touchdown Club President Spud Bowen briefly spoke about resources. Feeding players is big. For some, the breakfasts, lunches and dinners they get with the team are the only meals they get all week. He also asked for positivity on social media. Kids are connected. They know what is being said on the internet about them. Support, said Bowen, “Is going to make a huge difference in their lives.”