The state of the New Hope High School football program is clouded in uncertainty.
New Hope High Principal Matt Smith informed first-year head football coach Shawn Gregory by voicemail Friday that he would not renew him as the school’s coach for 2014. The messages came after Gregory met Thursday with Smith, New Hope High Athletic Director Dale Hardin, and New Hope High Assistant Principal Sammy Sullivan.
Smith told Gregory he wanted his resignation by today and that if he didn’t receive it he would proceed with non-renewal.
Gregory said Monday and reiterated Tuesday he wouldn’t resign as New Hope High football coach and that he planned to continue to teach physical education in the elementary school. Coaching jobs are at-will positions, meaning a school can decide at any time to renew or not to renew a coach for the following season.
“I am not going to resign from a job I have poured my heart into,” Gregory said Monday. “I am not going to quit right now.”
Smith said Tuesday he couldn’t comment about the situation because it is a personnel issue
Gregory said there was a lack of communication between him and Smith. He said being in the elementary school and away from direct contact with his players contributed to the lack of communication. He believes Smith used the fact he isn’t in the high school against him.
Gregory said after his hiring was approved he wasn’t sure if a teaching spot would open for him to serve in that capacity at the high school. Gregory said his desire to be in the high school so he could be closer to his players and to maximize the amount of time his assistant coaches were at practice, in workouts, and with the players were his primary objectives.
Gregory cited Smith’s decision to discipline several of his players without his knowledge as an example of the lack of communication.
“I know he can (move me into the high school) if he wants to do it,” Gregory said Monday. “I have been to too many great places to be treated this way.”
Gregory, who didn’t attend school Monday, said he felt Smith used the meeting they had Thursday against him. He said Smith called him “hard-headed” and “stubborn.” Gregory said he walked out of the meeting after that because he was frustrated by the direction the conversation was taking.
“It was unexpected of me that 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, who graduated from New Hope High in 1986, 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. The Trojans went 4-7 this past season and failed to make the playoffs out of Class 5A, Region 1. 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. New Hope finished 2-5 in Region 1.
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. That season he also set an NCAA single game record for most yards gained per completion (33) in a 52-14 victory against Southern University. Gregory had 14 completions for 462 yards in the victory. 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.
Gregory said he spoke with Lowndes County School Superintendent Lynn Wright for 45 minutes Monday. He said Wright advised him to speak to Smith again and to try to find common ground. He said he went back to Smith on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the situation, but he said Smith remained committed to what he wanted to do. He said he then spoke to his players just before 3 p.m. and informed them about the situation. He said he didn’t know how it was going to play out.
“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.”
Gregory said he didn’t know how the situation was going to affect New Hope’s preparation for spring football and the 2014 season. He said he hoped he could “finish what he started” and that he reiterated he would not resign and would remain as a physical education teacher in the elementary school.
“I still want to be at New Hope,” Gregory said. “I have put a lot of time and energy as a student, walking those same halls, and I am just trying to come back home and give back. If I am allowed to give back, I think we will be fine.
“If it is not structured right, we will be a mediocre team. I am going to bust my tail to make it not be that, but reality is reality. When you don’t have any coaches to coach down there (in fourth block), some kids are going to miss out on the fundamentals and the technique and the film study to see what they did wrong because somebody has to show them all of that. If we don’t have the structure right where those folks can’t be hands on with their position players, they are going to continue to make mistakes. We’re trying to get all of that in place.”
Gregory also said he was troubled that several things he asked Smith to help him do didn’t get done. He said he asked Smith to have the goal posts and the bathrooms at the high school game field painted. He said he asked that the lift used to film practices be fixed, and he asked that he be approved to attend a coaching clinic next month in Biloxi. He said Smith denied his request to attend the clinic.
Hardin, who served as defensive coordinator for the Trojans this past season, said last year Gregory has “great knowledge” of the game and that he relates well to the players. He said Gregory’s wealth of experience at all levels would serve him well as he transitioned into the role of head coach.
“He plans on this being his last stop,” Hardin said. “He wants to do well at his home school. He knows some people here, which brings some pressure to the situation. I have talked to a lot of former Trojans and a lot of them are excited about him being back home.”
Gregory said one of his problems with the configuration of his coaching staff was many of his assistant coaches drove buses after school, which took them away from valuable preparation and practice time. He said not all of the assistant coaches who worked under Bradley served as bus drivers and that the bus routes were assigned by school administrators. He said Smith could have alleviated some of the workload and made it easier for him to manage the program by moving him into the high school.
“I knew it was going to be a struggle,” Gregory said. “I pretty much had to do everything myself. I let (Smith) know I wasn’t going to do that again this year with the team we have coming back.”
New Hope had 32 juniors listed on its roster this past season, and figures to have rising senior Brady Davis as its starting quarterback.
Gregory said another issue Smith raised with him was his treatment of the assistant coaches. He said Smith told him he didn’t like the way he was treating his coaches. Gregory said he responded by saying, “If they’re your coaches, you need to be the head coach.” Gregory said Smith never elaborated about how he might have mistreated the assistant coaches.
“I am extremely disappointed,” Gregory said Tuesday. “Being in the situation I am in, being the head coach and teaching five classes in the elementary school building, I am not getting an opportunity to really see the fruit of my labor. We made some strides this year and we made some changes. We made the atmosphere on the practice field conducive to developing kids and young men, with the sand pit and the receiver poles, just teaching them about the game of football and, at the same time, teaching them about the game of life. They are going to see it through me, what I am going through right here. No matter what you do and how hard you work, there always are going to be some things out there that are against you.
“I came home to make a difference. Not to be able to see the fruit of my labor is really heartbreaking, very heartbreaking, to come home and try to give back, not just the players but the community.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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