Marlo East takes over head football coach position at Jefferson County High School

When Marlo East was just knee high to a tackling dummy, he used to play in the yard alone, tossing the football as far as he could into the air and then catching it himself, pretending he was both the quarterback and the receiver.

By the time he entered high school in Washington County he was in love with the sport.

“I always liked being a part of a team,” East said. “It was fun when you scored and everyone was cheering. It was the camaraderie and the fan-participation. You had people who looked up to you for certain things.”

He played nearly every position but the line for the Golden Hawks and earned himself full scholarship to play ball for Troy State University. A series of injuries, first to a knee and then to both shoulders, forced him to the sidelines for much of his college career, but while there he discovered another side of the game he had never considered.

His offensive coordinator at the time was Tony Franklin who ran football camps for high school players and recruited his college players to help coach.

“I worked with the receivers,” East said. “I really enjoyed it. The kids were excited. They were telling me to call this or that play for them. It was productive. We were getting things done. My coach came up to me afterwards and told me how well I worked with the kids. It was the first time I thought about coaching being something I might do.”

After college he returned to Washington County (WACO) where he taught courses in web design and journalism and coached football, track and served as the Future Business Leaders of America advisor for 14 years.

This past fall he joined Jefferson County High School as a teacher and the JC Warriors as a defensive coordinator.

Last week the school system announced that East will be taking over the Warriors’ head coach position from retiring coach JB Arnold, who held the whistle for 22 years.

East served as defensive coordinator at WACO for 11 years and in that time he helped take the teams to two state runner-up titles, losing to Buford and then Calhoun, and making the playoffs every year he was there. Also coaching girls track, he took a team to another state runner up finish and had two athletes win state championships in the hurdles and triple jump and the team finished in the top five on three separate years.

“I just love it,” he said about coaching. “Taking these kids, working hands-on with them, learning all about them and you think you know what they can do if put in the right position and they don’t get nervous. You are dealing with 14-to-18-year-olds. Mistakes are going to happen. But the fact that you can take them and their skills and put them in a position where they will be successful.”

Watching and guiding young athletes as they gain confidence, giving them a chance to let success change them, that’s what keeps him in coaching, East said.

“And this can be the glue,” he added. “Let’s face it, 75 percent of kids don’t like to come to school unless there is something there, they want to do, whether that’s dance or chorus or whatever. Football is that this that sometimes gets them in the door, that gives them a reason to focus on school so they can play.

“Football is a tool to teach life-long lessons. What happens on the field, you can relate it to life. When something doesn’t go your way, you adjust, make a new plan. If you don’t, your season is over. You don’t want your season to be over after high school. It teaches you to work hard, to keep grinding and hopefully you’ll break through. If not, you might learn something else in the process.”

East said that he remembers being on the other side of the field during a game in which his then Golden Hawks were playing Jefferson County’s Warriors. Another coach asked him if he had the chance, would he ever want to coach that other team. East didn’t even have to stop and think about it.

“Heck yeah,” he said. “I always admired the athletes that came out of Jefferson County.”

This first season with the Warriors was a tough one for the team which went 2-9, but East said he is excited about the future of the program and about what he saw in the players this season.

“This year we didn’t get the wins we wanted, but I saw the promise of some things we can work on. We did see some improvement in kids, which is probably one of the most important things,” he said. “We saw some developed structure in kids that will help them in football as well as in life in general. My thing is you’ve got to be positive with the kids. Even if you don’t win the game, make sure they get something from it. We didn’t get a lot of wins, but did they gain something from the season; whether it was camaraderie with their teammates or developing a relationship with a coach or another friend. That’s always important.”

East said that the Warriors have a lot of really quick players that can fit into any number of different skill positions.

“That’s something you can always build on,” he said. “Our line is decent sized. We need to get in the weight room and get a little stronger, but I think they are taking that pretty well. We are doing conditioning in addition to weightlifting now. We go over some footwork drills. All the kids have embraced it. They want to get better.”

East said that while sure, the job is about wins and losses, he prefers to measure success in the development of the individual kids.

“You can develop kids, give them personal leadership skills,” he said. “Sometimes changing habits is a win.”

For now they will be working on conditioning and leading up to the spring game East said he will be focusing on making sure the players know what to do and when to do it.

Looking forward to this fall, the coach recognizes that the Warriors will be returning to a tough region schedule.

"Swainsboro played in the state championship this year and they’re in the region with us. Dublin is always a strong team. Bleckley County is a strong team. East Laurens has gotten better over the years,” East said. “You really just want to fit in there somewhere. We know it’s going to be competitive, so we have to prepare with that in mind. Those teams are going to be working and we’re going to be working as hard as those teams.”

JCHS Principal John McAfee said that he is thankful for the service that former coach JB Arnold has provided the school over the years and is excited about the school board’s decision to offer East the opportunity to be the third head football coach in school history.

“We’re excited about what he is going to bring to continue the tradition of success that we have here at JCHS,” McAfee said. “He has laid out a plan for a great 12-month program to build student athletes, not just the physical part, but a plan for the whole student, physically, mentally and emotionally to help them be the best student athlete they can be.”

East, the son of a career educator, has one sister who currently plays in the WNBA for the Dallas Wings, another sister who is playing basketball at Alabama State and a brother who earned a scholarship to play football for Georgia Tech.

He has two sons, one of whom is a junior in high school and the other is in first grade.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Marlo East takes over football coach position at Jefferson County