NOTE: There are only 44 days left until the start of the 2015 high school football season -- both around the state and right here in northeast Georgia. With that in mind, AccessWDUN is already in full preparation mode. Over the next three weeks we will give you a sneak peek of what’s in store for 2015 with our "Two-A-Days" series. We will bring you two key questions -- and answers -- for each program in our coverage area, twice a day. Each morning will start a new program, with another highlighted each afternoon. And at the end of each week we will also provide some video footage and commentary from area coaches. Programs will run in alphabetical order.
Chestatee football found itself in a transitional season with a capital “T” in 2014. The War Eagles, who were coming off their two best campaigns in program history, replaced their head coach, much of the staff and a number of starters on both sides of the ball.
The changes proved tough in the record books, as Chestatee posted a 1-9 mark just a season removed from winning nine games. But improvements were also obvious, as the War Eagles went from scoring 38 points through their first five games to 128 points through their final five contests. Coach Bill Forman says things are very much looking up for the War Eagles as they head into 2015, noting a, “totally different vibe than from this time a year ago.”
We caught up with Forman to ask him about the team’s progress through the spring and summer:
QUESTION: How are things different now for you in year two as head coach of the program?
ANSWER: The transition took a little time because of the timing of the way things happened last year. Really good changes have happened going into this second year. We’ve got a whole new staff, got a complete staff of coaches now. We’ve got a great group of men that are leading our program. And we’ve just got more of a bounce in our step as a coaching staff, which leads to more of a bounce in the step of our kids. I’m excited about our enthusiasm, and the kids seem like they’re coming to work and are ready to go. It feels like a totally different program this year for me. ... I love our competitiveness. We’ve had three-four opportunities to compete with other teams this summer, and I appreciate their competitiveness of these guys, and that’s something we can build on.
QUESTION: What did you take from last season? Do you talk about it, or have you just tried to move on from it?
ANSWER: I took it as a learning opportunity. We were so young; we just took it as a great opportunity to learn what we need to do and what not to do. We do talk about it, because we don’t want that to be our standard. They have the same feeling that we do that that was a blip in the radar, and we’re going to put our noses to the grindstone and get back to work and make sure we don’t have another season like that. So we do use it. We use it as a motivational opportunity and an opportunity of what we can learn going forward.
COMING UP NEXT: Commerce
