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Kevin Latham & Coach Harrison    Columbia AAAA will be battling week in and week out in one of the toughest regions in the state by far. Kevin Latham has his work cut out for himself every year having to prepare for the likes of Southwest DeKalb, Tucker, Saint Pius-X, Marist, Mays, and Washington, etc. I'd like to wish Kevin the best of luck as he prepares for his unenviable opener with State Runner-Up, Marist!  Yikes!!!

2007 I found myself coaching with good friend, and Columbia Head Coach Kevin Latham. Though the expectations were high, we finished with a 5-5 record in the toughest region in the state by far. All ten games were region games and 9 of the ten could beat each other on any given night and did. Coach Latham said, "We definitely have the program moving in the right direction". All in all, I really enjoyed my coaching role with the fine kids and coaches at Columbia.!

***I N T E R E S T I N G  N O T E:  Not only is Columbia my "al ma mater" but it was also home to 2 magnificent coaches, in one of the most competitive football conferences in the nation, Gwinnett County 8-AAAAA. Cecil Flowe of Parkview, and Mark Crews of Brookwood is usually beating each other up for the rights at the Georgia AAAAA State Championship. I respect, and think a ton of both these guys and though Cecil was a few years younger than I, Mark Crews and I, actually played together at Columbia for Coach Phil Knight.

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Coach Harrison speaks at "Hugh Wyatt's", Atlanta Double Wing Clinic on  2-26-2005.

(From Hugh Wyatt's Web Site)****** What a great lineup of speakers at the Atlanta Clinic - Larry Harrison, who went from being an offensive
coordinator at a large high school that didn't always appreciate his offense to head coach at a small private high school - Nathanael Greene Academy - which he took to this year's state final game. Oh yes - and he did it without a single assistant; Steve Jones, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who has coached the Double-Wing successfully at three different schools, taking the
Ocean Springs Greyhounds to this year's Class 5A (largest class) final game; Kevin Latham, who as a middle school coach won a DeKalb County (suburban Atlanta) championship, suffered a near-fatal heart attack (at the age of 37) and just finished his first year as a high school head coach at Decatur's Columbia High School.

Considering the stereotype that so many of us fight - that our offense is just three or four plays
from only one formation - I can only say what an incredible feeling it is to know that we have
advanced to the point where at Atlanta and other clinics there are now men of the caliber of
coaches Gibson, Harrison, Jones and Latham able to step up and share the things they're doing.

*The Atlanta Clinic was a success and great time as a room full of great coaches share our common offensive strategies and knowledge. Click on "About the Coach" for a quick briefing.

 Steve Jones on the left, if you read the bottom of my home page, is Head Coach at Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi (AAAAA) and runs the same type double wing offense as I. I have met, enjoyed his company and help, through clinics, emails and film and wish him the best of luck on their plight. They won the South State Championship Friday 11-26-04 defeating Oak Grove 30-13. They advance to the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP game next week in Jackson at Mississippi Memorial Stadium where they play South Panola next Friday night. I will keep you posted. NOW: Ocean Springs was defeated in the championship game but what a season they had. Steve Jones, just two years ago, was hired at the school and brought a winless program to the very top of Mississippi High School football. Congratulations on a season much like ours and I look forward to talking to you, hopefully in Atlanta soon. LH

Since then, Atlanta's Clinic has come and gone and I had the privilege of sharing the podium with Steve as we both ended up State Runner-Up in our respective states. Congratulations to Steve Jones as he made it to the final game where he played a team that clearly over matched him in every position. Steve did a marvelous job of keeping his kids in the game to the very end, and containing all but one Michael Vick type athlete. Even though the Ocean Spring Greyhounds (MS) were physically, very much overmatched, the game could have gone either way. Great job Steve Jones!

COACH PHIL KNIGHT & LARRY HARRISON      Phil Knight has always been a special person to me and I'm proud to have been an understudy to him. Coach Knight was always appropriate, courteous, consistent, and prepared for the tasks at hand, and was always in for the challenge. As the Quarterback of Knight's first Head Coaching job, Columbia High School in DeKalb County, GA, I'll say that he taught me an enormous amount about winning, going from the cellar to the top of our league in just one year. He had a lot of faith in us players and a tremendous amount of confidence in his plan. This rubbed off on me and I refer to some of our conversations and skull sessions even now. Coach Knight was always able to pull the miracle out of the hat and became well known as the guy to turn decades of losers into instant and consistent winners. He took us at Columbia from the bottom to the top, then moved to Rockdale County where they had no winners in decades and he won there, and then to Lithonia where he went to the playoffs 10 consecutive season, and with Lithonia never having a sputter before he showed up. Phil Knight is a man I call my friend and mentor and has meant more to me over the years than he'll ever know. I hope that I coach with just a portion of the class and leadership that Phil Knight displayed over his 35 year career in Georgia. People who know him will tell you that he is one of the best coaches in the state and I promise you this... No one enjoyed the thought of having to play him on Friday night. Maybe one day I can put together a complete history of his coaching days, for he is one to be studied, if excellence is your goal as a coach. LH

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More feature teams and coaches coming soon!

Coach Harrison  is heading to Arizona to conduct a Private Mini-Clinic on April 2, 2005.  Coach H has been commissioned to do an offensive clinic at an already very successful high school program in Arizona. " Kathy and I have decided to turn the trip into a vacation and see the Grand Canyon while visiting."

 ... The Arizona trip and clinic is done and was great fun being around a really fine group of coaches and being able to visit the most beautiful state I've ever been.. My only complaint is that we just didn't have enough time to spend together. The kids I got to work with were great and would have loved to bring a couple back with me but Hathcock wouldn't have any of that. Coach Hathcock and his staff were far more than gracious and they presented me a cougar hat, T-Shirt, and nice sweat shirt with my name monogrammed on. I was so exhausted after the trip and the clinic that I failed to get the pictures I wanted to take of the coaches at the clinic and kids and school. Maybe I could get back there next year.   SINCE THEN: I have just learned that Coach Hathcock has moved and is not currently coaching but Brandon Newcomb, Head coach of Alchesay High School, also at the clinic, is off to a roaring start of 3-0, with his team from the Indian reservation in Whiteriver, AZ. We'll be keeping in touch.

For Pictures of the trip CLICK HERE

CLICK ON THE CANYON

Don Markham: "The inventor of our particular style double wing offense that most people refer to as the "Markham Style" double wing to be specific. Don has set records in California and the nation that may never be broken such as 880 points in a single 14 game season, of course the Bloomington High Bruins won the state that year in 1994. He has individuals high in the rushing record book and his 880 point year sets a national all time scoring record. Markham has now reached 300 wins which will put him into legendary status with few coaches around America. Not bad for a Policeman coaching Youth Ball with a love for the game that compelled him to take a chance on coaching high school football. He says coaching football was more fun so he took the pay cut.

 Below is the man himself in Bermuda and his 2003 Bloomington Bruins.