This week we visit with Navarre head football coach Jay Walls about his time there with the Raiders, as well as the various influences he had coming up through the ranks as a player then as an assistant, until landing his first head coaching position. Here is this week’s 4 Questions with the Coach feature for Florida.
Q. Coach, where did your life of football begin for you, first as a player, then as a coach?
A. My football life as a player began in 1968 when I was 5 years old, when I played for the Savannah Peewee Panthers in Savannah, Georgia. My football life as a coach began in 1986 as a student assistant at Valdosta State University. I worked for head coach Mike Cavan. I assisted with the defensive line and coached the scout team offense.
Q. Did you always know you wanted to become a head football coach or was it something that you backed into? Was there a driving influence to get into coaching, maybe from a coach when you were a player, or a certain coach you coached under as an assistant?
A. Becoming a head coach was not the initial goal – just coaching football was the plan. Poor grades majoring in computer management information systems inspired me to look into coaching. Truthfully, my high school position coach inspired me to become a football coach. James Earl McCalister was my position coach at Rutherford High School in Panama City, Florida from 1979 through 1981. He was a huge influence.
Coach Mac later became head coach at Rutherford and then moved on to administration, becoming a principal. He then became superintendent of schools in Bay County, Florida. He is originally from Hahira, Georgia and played football in the ’60s at FAMU. He was a great coach that we all feared and loved at the same time – old-school tough love!
Another influence when I was younger was Coach Cy Wright, the director at the Jenkins Boys Club in Savannah. Coach Wright was a long-time successful high school basketball coach in the Savannah area. After retirement he became the director of the Boys Club. He was one of those guys who was great at any and all sports, and he loved kids. He was also a big influence in my decision to go into coaching.
Q. You’ve coached in Georgia and Florida, and have enjoyed success wherever you have been, which is saying a lot considering the tough environments you have been in. Thinking back, and even considering where you are now, what is the biggest challenge coming into a new program where there are high expectation?
A. Probably my first head coaching job at Suwannee High School in Live Oak, Florida in 1997. They were coming off an 0-10 season. They were a program that had great tradition and success. They had won four state championships in a row from 1987 through 1990. That was a lot of pressure on a rookie head football coach for sure. Superintendent Wyman Harvard took a chance on me and fortunately it paid off. Our first year we made the playoffs and the third year we played for the 3A state championship in Florida.
Q. So here you are heading into your 12th season at Navarre. What’s the makeup of this 2023 Navarre football team? Do you have a lot of returners back from last season?
A. I think the 2023 Navarre Raiders can be a very competitive football team. We are coming off an 8-3 season and a district championship. We have seven to eight returning starters on offense and seven to eight returning starters on defense. This past season we started a lot of juniors and sophomores. This can be a big plus as far as experience moving forward.
