New Hope High School Principal Matt Smith and the school’s football program are trying to move on.
On Wednesday, Smith met with members of the New Hope High football team to talk to them about his decision not to renew first-year head coach Shawn Gregory as football coach. The move came in the afternoon after Gregory turned in his keys to the field house to Smith and Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Lynn Wright.
“I discussed what I could with them to try to reassure them they’re my top priority and what our expectations are and what we are going to do moving forward,” Smith said.
Also Wednesday, Smith said Bob Reeves would serve as head coach for the football program in the transition period. He said Wednesday afternoon he hadn’t posted a job advertisement for the New Hope High football position and that he hoped to do that this week. He said he would love to have a recommendation for a new coach by March if not April to present to the school board for its approval.
“It is never easy,” Smith said. “As I told coach Gregory, I care about him as a human being and as a man, and I respect what he has done, but it wasn’t right for us and he and I couldn’t get right with a lot of issues. He said what he said and people can draw their own conclusions, but I am not going to comment on a personnel issue. Coach Gregory is a fine man and I wish him the best of luck. I have no hard feelings, and I have told him on several occasions I understand he may not have the same stance as I do, but I hope he can look at me and know I did what I thought was best for this school, this community, and this program.”
Jeremy Newton, who was a junior on the team this past season, listened to Smith at the team meeting and said there was a mixture of “disappointment, frustration, and anger” in the room. He said he left the meeting not knowing why Gregory was non-renewed and why he wasn’t returning as head coach.
“He said he couldn’t really explain the reason coach Gregory got fired and that he has to wait for the right time and the right moment to tell us,” Newton said. “There is no telling when that is going to be.”
On Tuesday, Newton helped organize a list of eight questions and concerns New Hope High junior football players had about the situation involving Gregory. He said he asked Smith how he expect the team to be successful knowing it was going to have its third head coach in three years. He said Smith told him, “I don’t know.”
Newton said he would like to have Gregory return.
“We all want him to come back because the way he was released wasn’t a normal manner,” Newton said. “It is going to be tougher (moving forward) because we were really excited about the season with coach Gregory. We were really confident going into the (2014) season that we would get wins we didn’t get last year to get into the playoffs. (Not having him as coach) is going to affect our motivation. The will to win is going to change.”
Smith said the players were emotional, as he imagined they would be, one day after Gregory spoke out on Smith’s decision not to renew him as the school’s football coach. Gregory, who graduated from New Hope High in 1986, led the Trojans to a 4-7 record (2-5 in Class 5A, Region) this past season. He believes Smith decided not to renew him based on a number of factors, including the fact he isn’t in the high school (he is a physical education teacher at New Hope Elementary School), a lack of communication, and the fact he spoke out about his assistant coaches not being available every day after school for practice because they drive buses.
Gregory said Tuesday he wasn’t going to resign by Wednesday, the date Smith requested on a voice mail he left Gregory. He said he planned to remain as a teacher at New Hope Elementary School.
“It was unexpected this was going to happen, but I know I didn’t have all of the ammunition to work with,” Gregory said Tuesday. “Having someone else’s coaches having to try to get on the right page with. All of that stuff comes into play. If you don’t have time to get all of that continuity together, you’re just going to be a mediocre football team. I am not taking this job to be mediocre. Mediocrity is not in my vocabulary. We are going to work, and we are going to work to win. If we lose, we are going to lose with our best effort. That is what our kids know right now.”
Gregory worked as defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator for head coach Michael Bradley in 2012. The Lowndes County School Board unanimously approved him to be the school’s new head coach in March 2013. In addition to being head coach, Gregory served as offensive coordinator on a team that lost to Golden Triangle rivals Columbus and West Point and defeated Caledonia.
Gregory was a member of New Hope High’s football, boys basketball, baseball, and track and field teams. He went on to be a standout quarterback at Jackson State University (1987-1990). As a senior at JSU, he earned first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors after leading the team with 2,762 passing yards. In 2009, he was elected to JSU’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Gregory’s coaching journey began in 1996, when he served as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks and running backs coach at Redan High (Ga.). The coaching road took him to the college level — Morris Brown College, Tuskegee University, Mississippi Valley State University, Samford University — to the pros — he worked as an intern with the San Diego Chargers wide receivers in 2004-05 and as an intern with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks in 2006 — and back to the high school level for several stops in the state of Alabama before he received a phone call about a job at New Hope High.
“I just believe in my heart I have done everything right and I have done everything according to the system,” Gregory said. “I shouldn’t have to resign from a job I have poured my heart into and done it the right way. … I have put too much work in to just walk away from it. If I teach my kids to walk away from it, I am teaching the wrong thing and we’re not going to be real successful. If it was something I have done, sure, I will resign. But if I didn’t do anything to resign, I am not going to resign.
“It is just going to have to play itself out from here on. Whatever the situation is, that is what it is, but I can’t walk away from something I know in my heart I did right.”
Smith said he met with the New Hope High football players for about 20 minutes with Reeves and athletic director Dale Hardin, who was defensive coordinator this past season under Gregory. He said he told the players he understood their frustration and tried to answer their questions, but informed them there were plenty of things he couldn’t discuss because his decision not to renew a coach, which is an at-will position, is a personnel issue. An at-will employee can be non-renewed or fired without being given a reason.
Smith said Wright was informed of his decision to name Reeves the head coach to keep it moving forward toward spring football. He said Wright understands his expectations for the football program and was “on board” with having Reeves take over the program.
“He has been the most consistent man in the young men’s lives, and he has been here longer than I have,” Smith said of Reeves. “Coach Reeves is committed, and he was the most logical choice in my mind of the remaining coaches. He also is really into strength and fitness and conditioning. We did have to juggle some schedules down there to get him down there, but he will run the thing until somebody else is put in charge, whether it is him or whoever.”
Reeves, who was an assistant coach under Bradley, is in his ninth year in the school system. He spent this past season as a member of Gregory’s staff and is a social studies teacher at New Hope Middle School.
“Any time there is a change or a transition, you want to make things go as smoothly as possible,” Reeves said. “That is what my goal is, to bridge the gap between head coaches and try to provide a little structure and a little support for the kids.”
After Bradley resigned, Reeves applied for the job opening and was one of 11 applicants interviewed. He said Wednesday he was still interested in being a head coach and that he would consider applying for the New Hope High football job again.
“I am going to think about it and pray about it and talk with my family about it,” Reeves said.
Reeves met Wednesday with the other members of Gregory’s coaching staff to make sure everyone is moving forward. He said the Trojans will operate under the assumption the hiring of a new coach will take longer than possible so they will have a plan for the spring. He also acknowledged it will be challenging to keep the players, especially the rising seniors, focused because they have to deal with the uncertainty of having their third head coach in three seasons.
Reeves said he hopes his experience with the players will help him keep everyone moving forward.
“The kids may think going into next year is a rebuilding period, but I told them we’re going to show up and we’re going to work,” Reeves said. “We can’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves because nobody else is. The situation is what it is, and we just have to press on.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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