Richmond Hill head football coach Matt LeZotte kicks off his seventh season as the Wildcats head coach next season. He took time to answer questions this week with ITG Next Georgia’s Phil Jones.
Q: Coach, you’ve got starting QB Ty Goldrick returning.What’s the rest of the returning group looking like?
A: We had a ton of young guys that got a taste of what varsity football competition is like in a high classification. The premium we set on preparation we believe will pay dividends in the future, if not the immediate future. The experiences they had last year created a very hungry team moving into the off-season. Our team in 2022 will again be very young, but most of those players will be a year older with an additional year in our strength and conditioning program, and we believe they will be ready when the time comes to play games in the fall.
Q: You guys will move to 7A and I know that brings up a couple of issues. How do you see your team competing with the likes of Valdosta, Lowndes, Colquitt, and Camden in the new look region 1-7A?
A: The past four years have been geared around preparing our team for this transition. A lot of peers thought I was a fool for taking this job in 2015 because of the lack of tradition and successful seasons at lower levels of competition. I knew it was only a matter of time before we were bumped into the highest classification. I’m not sure if everyone around here understood that at the time and I think some were “shocked” when it happened this year, but not our football staff. Our goal is to put a product on the field our entire community can be proud of.
Q: What about the non-regional portion of your schedule? Can you talk about that part of your schedule for the upcoming season?
A: Being in the stage our program is in, following the successes we’ve had, scheduling opponents can tend to be difficult. We have branched out to play a few quality opponents close to home while also playing perennial powerhouses in Coffee and Ware County. We also picked up a highly rated team out of Florida in Baker County. The biggest thing for us moving forward is playing high levels of non-regional competition while preparing our guys to compete in a highly competitive region.
Q: I know Dr. Hines and the GHSA have acknowledged that travel is a big issue with teams like yours there at Richmond Hill. The other condition is the size of your school. Richmond Hill will be one of the smallest schools in 7A. Coach Matt LeZotte How much do both of these conditions affect your team from a competitive standpoint?
A: It was extremely discouraging knowing that GHSA did not hear/understand our reasoning of the toll travel will take on our student athletes and already had their minds made up as to following through with the classification bump. For our football team you only play one game a week. We can handle it. For other sports, playing multiple games in a week to include weekdays, seat time and travel expenses alone should have been enough to at least consider it. Just like everything else we do at Richmond Hill, we will find a solution and attack it in an extraordinary fashion in order for us to remain successful both in the classroom and on the playing fields.
