Head coach Johnny Gilbert fights through history and pandemic to turn fledgling program into a winner
In 2019, Johnny Gilbert was the head football coach and athletic director at Creekside Christian Academy and had led the Cougars to a 33-20 record and two trips to the state championship game. He actually gave up the stress and rigors of a head coach position, allowing him to devote his time to overseeing the Cougars’ athletics as their AD. He was at a great school with access to all the amenities that the big city had to offer within a short driving distance. Yes, life was good for Gilbert.
Then the call came.
It was Eddie Johnson, principal at Dougherty Comprehensive High School in Albany, Georgia. The Dougherty Trojans had just suffered through a 0-10 season. They hadn’t had a season finishing above .500 since 2005, when the Trojans finished 13-2 and made it to the Class 3A state finals game (a 35-14 loss to Peach County). Starting with the 2006 season, the team went on a streak that no school wants its football program to go through: 14 consecutive seasons without a winning record. Their record was 32-100 from 2006 to 2019. Only in 2008 when Dougherty finished 6-6 did Trojan football fans have anything remotely good to cheer for.
Obviously, the football program was in need of an overhaul.
“Principal Johnson called me one day and mentioned that he was aware of the job we had done at Creekside,” Gilbert said about that initial phone conversation. “He then asked me if I would come down and meet with him to talk about possibly joining him at Dougherty to help get things turned around.”
He agreed to come down, and the two men sat together for hours talking about the problems that Dougherty had faced over the years with its football program. The more Gilbert listened, the more he realized just how big the challenge would be if he indeed decided to accept the head coaching job at Dougherty. But Gilbert said that as he and Johnson walked around the school and he saw and met the students and the players, he began to realize that Dougherty was a place he wanted to be.
“In my heart, I just felt that they needed a leader, someone to show them the way, and I wanted to be that person to come here and be that leader and positive influence on them,” Gilbert said. “So I accepted the job.”
Gilbert knew the challenge that awaited him.
“I knew right away things would be tough coming here,” he said. “The program had been down for years, and they had finished 0-10 the season before I got here.”
The new Trojans coach said the first thing he and his staff did was to instill discipline in the program and begin laying a foundation for the future. In the meantime, there were still struggles.
“We finished 2-8 my first season, but lost some close games in the fourth quarter, so despite the record, I was pleased with where we were headed,” Gilbert said. “We felt that we had set a solid foundation, and the kids were believing in us as coaches, and they could see that we cared about them as players, as kids, and as students. We really began to pay attention to their grades. We were definitely headed in the right direction.”
Then, COVID-19 hit.
Dougherty’s football team was affected in more ways than one by the pandemic that was ravaging the entire country. The football team was featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story that talked about several players’ families battling the pandemic, as well as the socioeconomic struggles that living in Albany brought, with a deadly virus adding to those struggles. Suddenly, just as the Dougherty football program was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, they had to deal with the reality of becoming the poster child for all of the struggles brought on by COVID-19.
Just as Gilbert was seeing a turnaround with his team and players, real life hit.
“COVID hit us hard and from a lot of different directions,” he said. “We had players who had family members that were sick and suffering, and they weren’t able to come to practice.”
For the ones that could practice, the GHSA had placed statewide restrictions on the number of players that could practice at one time together as a group, which made for all-day practices, according to Gilbert.
“Despite everything going on, I’m trying to get this football program turned around,” Gilbert said. “And it would have been tough under normal conditions, but this made it a real challenge.”
Gilbert was worried.
“I was thinking, ‘How am I going to do this?’,” he said.
Football actually became an escape for his players from everything life was throwing at them, according to Gilbert.
“I know this sounds crazy, but everything these players went through actually made them appreciate football even more, and they couldn’t wait to start playing again,” Gilbert said.
But the Dougherty Trojans had to wait. As the 2020 season approached, the GHSA was allowing member schools to decide if they wanted to play an entire season or if they wanted to even have a season at all. At Dougherty, school administrators were still undecided.
“Our superintendent, Ken Dyer, told us that we would not play the first five games of the season and wasn’t sure just yet about the other games,” Gilbert said.
The team was eventually allowed to play five games and finished 0-5. But it was something, and that was all that mattered to the Trojans and their new coach.
“Our kids just wanted to play football,” Gilbert said. “They really devoted themselves, and the seniors told the returning players to carry on what they had started.”
They heard their graduating mentors loud and clear. Gilbert said the change was clear for everyone to see as workouts began for the 2021 season.
“The weight room was packed that summer, and our roster grew from 45 players to 75 players,” he said. “These kids actually got together as a group, and they told me it was time to turn Dougherty football around.”
And turn it around they did. From what had been a team without a winning season in over a decade and a program that came close to losing a season due to a worldwide pandemic came a coach and group of kids that made the ultimate comeback.
In 2021 the Dougherty Trojans won as many games as they had in the last six seasons combined. They finished the regular season 8-2 and then won two playoff games before losing a quarterfinal matchup to finish 10-3.
So far this season, the Trojans are undefeated through their first seven games as they head into the final weeks of the season.
“It’s just been phenomenal,” Gilbert said of the last couple of seasons. “I’m so proud of these kids and everything they’ve accomplished.”
The Dougherty football team is back and ready to take on the whole world. Again.
