4 Questions With Americus-Sumter Football Coach Ross Couch
We spoke with Americus-Sumter football coach Ross Couch about the challenges his program faced last year and what we can expect in 2021.
Q: Where has your coaching career taken you before arriving at Americus?
A: I served as an assistant for 12 years with stops at GMC Prep, John Hancock Academy, Swainsboro, Bradwell Institute, and Windsor Forest. I then served as head coach for two years at Bradwell Institute before coming to Americus in the same role. I am going into my third year in Americus.
Q: Your first year there with the Panthers was a great success, and then last year you guys were devastated with roster issues due to COVID-19. What exactly happened?
A: The 2019 season was a roller coaster of ups and downs. We’d find a rhythm and start moving in the right direction, then we’d take two steps back and have to get refocused. Our players did a great job of grinding it out at the end of the year and getting into the playoffs and an even better job on the road in a freezing monsoon to beat Burke County in the first round before Sandy Creek got the best of us in Round 2.
We had a strong group of skill players coming back in 2020, but we lost 26 graduating seniors from 2019, and, for the most part, we knew were going to be young in a lot of key positions.
Then COVID hit. Over the course of the summer and regular season, among multiple shutdowns and canceled games, we lost nearly 40 players to opting out or injury. We finished the last few weeks of the season with between 25 and 30 players, and I don’t think we had the same starting lineup on either side of the ball a single game.
But I have got to give credit to the guys who stuck it out. They gave it everything they had until the last day of the season. There was no quit in those boys, and that bodes well for the future.
Q: How are things looking so far this spring? What are your expectations for this season?
A: Our numbers are up some from the end of last year, and I expect that to increase in the fall when we are finally out of the full virtual school environment we’ve been in for the entire 2020-21 school year. Once we can get our student body back on campus and we can walk the halls and get these missing guys back on the field, we will get back into a more normal routine. Until then, we are just going to keep grinding with the guys we have and do our best to put them in the best possible position to be successful.
The biggest thing we’ve got to get accomplished is a resurgence in our weight program. A full school year of virtual school and limited weight room access has put us behind the eight ball a bit, but I know these guys are going to come in and get the work done. It’s just going to take time to catch up.
Q: You guys will now be known as the Sumter County Panthers. Was this part of a consolidation of school systems? Is there a new high school?
A: We are building a brand new high school that will open in August, and that location adjustment led to the name change from Americus-Sumter High School to Sumter County High School.
I’ve been to the new building, and it has a ton of bells and whistles. There are two basketball gyms, a new weight room, a performing arts auditorium, an ROTC wing, a Career Academy, an impressive band room. Our Board of Education has done a great job with the facility.
Hopefully, in the next couple of years, we will be able to move our football operations out there as well. For the time being, we will bus our kids back to the old school every day for practice and games. It’ll be a daily logistical challenge, and it’ll make for some long days, but our kids are resilient. When we get a practice facility, field house, locker rooms, and stadium at the new school, they will appreciate those things even more.
Written by: Phil Jones
