Gwinnett Daily Post Getting to Know ... Scott Willis
By Ben Beitzel Staff Writer

Scott Willis, 47, is the head coach of the Georgia Force home school football team. In his four seasons as head coach, the high school Force have reached the Georgia Football League championship game every year and won back-to-back titles in 2005-06. The 1979 Peachtree High School grad played high school football under former South Gwinnett head coach T. McFerrin and former Brookwood head coach Dave Hunter and played college football at Appalachian State.

In this installment of "Getting to Know..." staff writer Ben Beitzel talks to Willis about coaching a high school team with no school, satellite radio and learning the advantage of the dumb jock stereotype.

BB: First off, how do you get started coaching home school football?
SW: I had mentioned to my wife about the need for home school athletics since my daughters were being home schooled. I told her, I said, 'It's a shame that they don't have any sports around here.' I didn't know about the basketball program and the baseball program. Through a friend in the home school co-op loop (my wife) got an e-mail from (GFL Commissioner) Hank St. Denis ... trying to start football teams. Especially one in Gwinnett County. ... I responded to the e-mail said, 'Hey, I played high school football here and played at Appalachian State and any help you need getting started let me know.' About two weeks later, I came home and (wife) Beth said, 'I understand they found a head coach for the home school football team.' It took me back for a second and then I said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And she said, 'The funny thing is, it sounds a lot like you.' I said, 'I didn't volunteer for it.' She said, 'Did you tell them you'd help? ... You're the head coach now' And she told me, 'I think you ought to do it.'

BB: You played in high school and in college. How difficult is it to coach home school kids when you don't have the structure and you don't have the organization that is built in by a school structure?
SW: It is more than coaching. I become an administrator and a coach. Trying to find sponsors for our program. Trying to put everything together because you have so many elements. You have no support. No booster club support. No county funds. No school funds. You have to go out there and get people involved. You have to get sponsors involved. You have to get parents involved. Coaching the kids is not that much different. In some aspects it's probably better because they don't have a lot of football experience so they are eager to learn. We find it almost harder to coach the ones who do have the past football experience of trying to build them into what they think they know and what we are trying to coach them. It is a tough balance to coach the kids because it is such a broad spectrum. You have the kids who have never played football. You ask them on the phone, 'Have you ever played football?' And they tell you, 'Yeah, I played backyard football.' Then you have kids who played three years in the youth football league and you have to put all that together.

So there is an imbalance that you have to bring to a balance.
BB: Do you ever turn to Dave (Hunter) and T. (McFerrin) for coaching guidance or tips?
SW: I do. I talked to Dave and to T. many times about directions. About, 'Hey, I need fields.' About who to talk to. What are your suggestions. I will say probably most of my coaching skills and process came from Dave and T. and Ray (Allen). When I was at Peachtree High School ... when Dave and T. came my sophomore year they moved me up on the varsity as a 10th-grader. My B team was horrible and the varsity team had won like one game.
When T. came that first year we went to the playoffs. The program took a dramatic change. I used a lot of that change to what T. did with the program and applied that to what I am doing. Practice scenarios to everything in the administrative stuff. ... A lot of that stuff that they did, I carry that with what I did.

BB: How did you meet your wife?
SW: I met her in college. After football practice.

BB: Was she just watching your practice?
SW: Rick Beasley, who was the other wide receiver that I played with, his girlfriend at the time was my wife's best friend. They were playing racquetball and they came over and I saw her and got Rick to introduce me to her. That was my freshman year, she is actually two years older than I am.

BB: How does a freshman get a date with a junior?
SW: Actually, I got her to tutor me in English (laughs). She was an English major and I needed help in English. That is how the relationship started ... That is a funny story, we laugh about that all the time. I told her I used the handicap that I was a dumb football jock and I needed help in English.

BB: You have to know, where were you when Appalachian State beat Michigan last year?
SW: I was driving to the Georgia game to watch Georgia and Oklahoma State. I hated leaving the house because I was watching the ticker at the bottom. I had just purchased a Sirius Satellite Radio, got in the car and I thought, 'I wonder if this game is on Sirius.' Turned it on and it was. I listened to that game ... going to the Georgia game. Could not believe it. ... I had my Appalachian stuff on so when I got to the game that is all I heard, 'Go Mountaineers!'

BB: What broadcast did you get? Michigan's or the home call?
SW: I heard the Appalachian announcers. The one they keep showing on ESPN. What a ballgame.

BB: What made you decide to go to a small school and play football vs. just going to a big school?
SW: I was the same way my kids are now. When I was at Peachtree and the coaches told me I had the opportunity to go play ... (Former Air Force head coach) Fisher DeBerry was the offensive coordinator at Appalachian and he recruited me. I wanted to go to the Miamis of the world.
I wanted to play big football, just like everybody else did. I realized that I probably stood a better chance of getting, A, a good education and B, get to play football at a smaller college. I went up to Appalachian and visited and fell in love with it.

BB: How much time do you put in as a volunteer head coach? Is it 50-50 with your job here (at Citation Manufacturing)?
SW: I am blessed to have people here that let me do this. During the inception of all this, I bet I spent 70 percent of my time on the phone with people. Talking to different manufacturers, trying to get the program going. I don't spend quite as much time now. My work schedule is different. I work from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. so I can go down and coach football in the afternoon. But throughout the day, I take phone calls with different people. I would say that is a good scenario. 50-50. I am able to balance doing my work, taking calls, doing the e-mails and that type of thing. ... It is a lot of hard work, but the way I look at it is you are going to get out of it what you put in. If we all work hard we are going to have a good program. ... We want to make this as much like high school football as possible for these kids.