Jump to content

New Tazewell Football Coach


old_school
 Share

Recommended Posts

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Post from G-Man - 10/26/2005

 

...Harris Hart didn't "ruin" Tazewell football, "politics" ruined Tazewell football. Going to play Nostradamus here for a second...I forsee the same thing happening to Coach Wyatt in the future...

 

 

i think it's safe to say that G-Man cursed the Bulldogs 12 years ago. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
22 minutes ago, EH31 said:

Post from G-Man - 10/26/2005

 

...Harris Hart didn't "ruin" Tazewell football, "politics" ruined Tazewell football. Going to play Nostradamus here for a second...I forsee the same thing happening to Coach Wyatt in the future...

 

 

i think it's safe to say that G-Man cursed the Bulldogs 12 years ago. 

75a08abe323a1fb3c7d6e9ca95d1506a_downloa

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
1 hour ago, EH31 said:

Post from G-Man - 10/26/2005

 

...Harris Hart didn't "ruin" Tazewell football, "politics" ruined Tazewell football. Going to play Nostradamus here for a second...I forsee the same thing happening to Coach Wyatt in the future...

 

 

i think it's safe to say that G-Man cursed the Bulldogs 12 years ago. 

How far back did you have to search to find that?!? How did you even remember he ever said it in the first place hahaha.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I can't wait to hear the Tazewell crowd after they start the season 1-4 or 0-5, facing Hurley in Game 6...OH, MY!!!  Things could really come unglued at that point...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

IMHO

The time needed to establish the program will never be afforded to Coach Harris. 

The Middle School parents will be shocked when there 14 and 15 year old kids lose to 18 and 19 year old seniors and they will invariably blame the coach. A lack of parental intelligence at one level, is passed on to the next level.

I wish the best for Coach Harris but he needs to stand with his back to the wall during this process. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Until the parents at Tazewell realize that they aren't coaches from the stands and that it takes time to turn a program around, Tazewell will continue to have losing seasons. Tazewell does have a proud program and it has always impressed me how they could be 1-6 but their stands are still full every Friday night. I am a firm believer that this program does not need to be rebuilt, it needs to be restored. Good luck to Coach Harris, even as a Graham fan I would like to see Tazewell start having success again, just not against us haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I know I'll really stir it up saying this but it's not all parents and politics anymore.  Of course it is part of it.  We had some stupid choices for coaches for a little bit that ran the whole morale/attitude down hill fast.  Say what you want but the work ethic of some of the past few "winning" coaches was still questionable.  Harris Hart was ruined by a few influential ($$$) type parents and their politics.  Bottom line we need someone that will get the work ethic back on and off the field and be able to relate to the kids and get the most out of them while ignoring all the bs that comes from all sources.  Any coach will have a rough time if they start bad no matter their pedigree.  Look at the big hire UVA had last year...

I look forward to the season as always and will be pulling hard for my Bulldogs as always.  Our team support from the town I would rate second only to Richlands as far as continued support and dedicated fans.  I can only speak from the areas I know well but there are plenty of Dogs up everywhere and this town needs a team to be proud of again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

For those unable to get past BDT bs:

TAZEWELL, Va. — Positivity exudes from J’me Harris. He’ll need it as the new head coach of the struggling Tazewell football program. 

“I always believe in the kids, I believe the kids want structure and I believe if you give them the opportunity the kids are going to try to compete,” said Harris, who was selected on Monday to replace Nick Colobro, who had been selected in January as a replacement for Shane Allen. “I don’t think getting down on them is going to help them.”

While the Bulldogs hasn’t had a winning season since 2008, Harris was successful during a four-year stint as the head coach the Tazewell Middle School team, posting an 8-0 record last year and 7-1 in 2015. Those players, who are now freshmen and sophomores, will be a big part of Harris’ first team at the high school. 

 

“I coached all of them. The senior group would have been my first year coaching at Tazewell Middle School so I do understand it is going to be an uphill battle to restore the program, but I do believe when when the players, coaches, school and community care for one another then special things can happen here,” said Harris, who added that the rising freshmen on the Tazewell program had won 16 of their last 17 games at the middle school level. “I do believe it can be done. Hopefully we can lit a spark here, build a power program, keep it going. The main thing we want to do is turn young men around so they can do better and then they can come back and help the community do better.”

Since posting a 9-3 record in 2008 and dropping a heartbreaking Region IV championship game decision to Richlands, the Bulldogs have won just 21 games under four different coaches over the last eight seasons, including last year’s 2-8 campaign, the final season for Allen, who led the Bulldogs to a 5-6 record and the playoffs in 2014. He was replaced by Colobro in January, but Colobro resigned without coaching a game last month, leaving the position open once again, and Harris jumped at the opportunity. 

“When Coach Colobro decided to resign it reopened the position and I decided I wanted to take advantage of that opportunity and put my name in and apply for the job,” said Harris, a 12-year resident of Tazewell, who coached the girls basketball program this season, and has led the boys program in the past. “I am excited about the opportunity. Tazewell has some great kids here and I just know that I am going to love coming to work every day.”

There is plenty of work ahead for Harris, but it’s not like the prospective Bulldogs haven’t been working toward the upcoming season, which begins on Aug. 25 with a visit to Virginia High. 

“They have been doing a weightlifting program under Coach (Nick) Leftwich since January,” said Harris, who plans to include Leftwich and Allen staff holdover Deacon Young on his staff. “The plan is to keep Coach Leftwich in place and let him continue with the weightlifting program. It will be status quo for what we have been doing. Here I will just take over the reins. We are four months away so we are playing catch-up in some other areas with the team but the weightlifting program has been good so far.

Up next will be devising plans for both sides of the ball, including an offense that will be missing the talented duo of quarterback T.J. Kitts and tailback Israel Harris. 

“We are going to fit our offensive philosophy around the kids we have and hopefully we are going to try to get a lot of kids involved,” said Harris, who plans to get his Bulldogs involved in several summer football camps and 7-on-7 competitions. “We want to have an offense that gets multiple kids involved and I believe that will help our numbers. Defensively, obviously we want to be a team that is fundamentally sound and tackles the football well. We understand there are going to be mistakes and there are going to be growing pains because we will be so young next year...

“I believe right now we have six returning seniors and six returning juniors. Our numbers will still be good. I am still expecting around 35 to 40 kids out for football, but the majority of them will be freshmen and sophomores. Physically, football is a struggle for a freshman to compete against a senior.” 

While Harris professes offense to be his strength on the sidelines, he got plenty of help on the other side of the ball from Stevie Mitchem, who served as Harris’ defensive coordinator at the middle school. Mitchem died unexpectedly last month. 

 

“I would probably consider my strength to be on the offensive side of the ball, but when you are a middle school head coach and you are limited with assistants you have to pick up both sides,” Harris said. “I had a great teacher for defense. Stevie Mitchem helped me tremendously. He meant a tremendous amount to this community and he was a tremendous role model for the young men, especially the freshmen and sophomores that he helped coach the last two years. To me you see what a great community Tazewell is by the way they have rallied around the Mitchem family during their time in need and how supportive this entire community has been for Stevie and his family.”

Harris plans to meet with the Tazewell football team on Thursday, with the work beginning toward a new season against a normally rugged schedule that will include four new additions in River View,  Hurley, Fort Chiswell and Bluefield. Harris does feels like the Bulldogs already have some of the best facilities in the region, which includes a fieldhouse with a weight room he compares to that of a small college. 

“The main thing is selling the program and we have got to get the kids to believe in ourselves and understand if you believe in the product it is a lot easier to sell,” Harris said. “We will put the staff together and hopefully have that finalized in a week. Once we get the staff finalized we will start installing what we want to do offensively and defensively. The weather should be nice enough for us to get on the field and start implementing some of that.”

Football can be a challenge at Tazewell, which is sandwiched between a pair of winning programs at Richlands and Graham. Harris sees that as a good thing.

“The kids are right here, it is just going to take some patience, community support and some realistic expectations early on,” he said. “The benefit of both of those teams being good is we don’t have to look far to have programs that we can model ourselves after. What works at our level of football is being done right around us so we can model ourselves after those two good programs and that might speed up our process.”

As for what to expect from the Bulldogs when 2017 season kicks off, Harris knows where to start.  

“This team is going to play hard,” he said. “We are going to have a good attitude and we are going to play hard and we are going to be aggressive in everything that we do.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
2 hours ago, GMan said:

I can't wait to hear the Tazewell crowd after they start the season 1-4 or 0-5, facing Hurley in Game 6...OH, MY!!!  Things could really come unglued at that point...

I'm going to go ahead and eliminate the 0-5 in that guess, most middle school teams can beat River View (Week 3).  But starting on the road at V-High, then at Graham, home against a cupcake from the County, then away to Marion and Bluefield, 1-4 is a certainty going into week 6 vs. Hurley...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 
 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...