Clarke Central High School teacher and JV football coach Stefan Smith reflects on his time spent at Cedar Shoals High School and his relationship with the coaches. “I, Coach Reed and Coach Thomas, we all grew up together, so we kind of had a pride relationship before this,” Smith said. “We kind of decided to come together. He’d been trying to get me to come over there ever since he got the job. He finally convinced me that we could do something special, and we did it.” Photo by Zoe Peterson
Clarke Central High School teacher and head JV football coach Stefan Smith talks about his return to CCHS after three years of coaching basketball at Cedar Shoals High School.
Sports staffer Caedmon Churchwell: How did you find your way back to Clarke Central High School?
Clarke Central High School teacher and head JV football coach Stefan Smith: We probably had a five to six-year plan (for Cedar Shoals High School basketball) but a job opened up here. I always kinda planned on coming back here because this is where my heart is. I’m being honest with you, when I walked out to the state championship game and I saw the blue and orange all over the place and I grew up a Gladiator, I am still an adult, but I still got that part of me, and I was kinda like, “Why can’t we have this red and gold. Why can’t we do that for us?” One of the reasons I did come back was CCHS Principal Marie Yuran, of course, the principal just my relationship with her. And then when I heard that David Perno was coming to coach football. That kinda sent something through my spine because I remember watching him as a kid playing football, and when I was a young kid I saw him play when I was in the seventh grade and he was maybe a senior — I’m assuming — and when they won the state championship, they were in the stands so that kinda triggered some feelings too. It was like, “Hey, he’s back here,” and I never met him before in my life, I knew of him and we met. It kinda just went from there because knowing what he knows kinda triggered some interest in me.
CC: What is the main difference between CCHS and CSHS?
SS: From a coaching standpoint, the culture is different because I guess both programs are competitive in nature, but I think at Cedar there was the bigger goal as to what we wanted to do state wise. We took on the state and we weren’t worried about northeast Georgia, we weren’t worried about the rivalry between CCHS and CSHS, and me and CSHS varsity basketball head coach Rico Thomas had a vision for what we wanted to do and it was more a state vision of what we wanted to do and the vision was a little bigger than what I had experienced here at CCHS.
CC: What led up to your decision to work at CSHS?
SS: It was kinda a choice (to coach girls). I played for Billy Wade and I ended up coaching with Billy wade for a long time. He was let go in 2010. Anytime a new coach comes in they gotta kinda establish themselves, so I was apart of the Billy Wade regime, but I just kinda went with the girls for a year and we ended up winning the region. At that time, girls basketball wasn’t really my passion not from the standpoint of teaching basketball is teaching basketball, but I was a little intense and you gotta kinda have people with that intensity. I think I kinda got that I got girls at home (and) a wife. I live with three women so intensity wise I think I coach with a little too much intensity sometimes.
CC: What do you hope to accomplish in your return to CCHS?
SS: Making sure that those younger guys we get are trained properly. You know changing the culture is what we are trying to do with the football program. We got a vision we got for the football program, so like this year we went 6-0-1 you know we are making progress. We won six, tied one with Buford (High School), and they are the program that’s the standard right now.
CC: What are some of your future plans for basketball?
SS: Right now, I am just working for the girls. As far as future plans for (CCHS) basketball, who knows what will happen? Right now, I am focused on (JV) football and helping the girls with basketball, but I still got a lot in me, a lot that I can render, just keep strutting along and see what happens. Hopefully we can try and get the girls back.
