KICKOFF COUNTDOWN: Pike Road coaches, players emphasising leadership

Pike Road first-year coach Granger Shook begins the 2023 season building character and leadership among his seniors. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

Discipline.

It’s crucial for every football program and instrumental in getting players to focus on tasks and avoid mistakes, two key elements that will almost certainly improve performance.

A primary goal for new Pike Road coach Granger Shook, who accepted the job in late March as the Patriots’ third coach in three years, was to improve the team’s discipline. He figured the buy-in would have to start with the team’s seniors. 

“One of the first things I did when I got to Pike Road was that I got the team to vote on team leaders,” Shook said, “because I wanted to know who the team perceived as team leaders.”

Out of that lesson came the leadership council, a group of players who serve as the liaison between the rest of the team and its coaching staff.  

“We tell him what are the problems with the team,” senior linebacker Mac Ceman said. “We sit down once or twice a week and tell him what we need to fix as a team. We are like his second lookouts behind the coaching staff on the team.”

The leadership committee derives its power from the teammates who chose their representatives. 

“I appreciate it a lot because last year I really didn’t look at myself as a leader,” said defensive lineman Malik Blocton. “I used to just go out there and play. This offseason, I tried to lead more and being voted on that by the team felt good to me.

“He’s been telling us we need to be taking more ownership in certain spots, not going crazy and thinking we run the team, but in certain spots where he can’t always be there or other coaches can’t be there, we need to step up and take care of stuff.”

It’s not limited to seniors, so getting voted onto the leadership committee is a huge honor for the players, particularly the underclassmen.

“I love the leadership committee because it allows us as leaders to get closer together and be able to trust one another on the decisions that we make,” said senior defensive back Cody Markham. “I’ve been on it since the 10th grade and have been with different types of leaders. Some guys in the past were example-led leaders but now we have guys who are word leaders.”

Shook said it’s an early indicator of which players will go above and beyond their normal duties to help their fellow teammates and the success of their team. 

“These guys meet with me and another coach almost weekly, either before practice or they stay after practice and meet,” Shook said. “So they invest a little more time than their teammates. These guys will have a direct impact on their season.”

Senior linebacker LaCedric Foster, who missed most of last season with an injury, said committee members appreciate their new head coach’s attitude when dealing with members of the committee.

“I like how Coach does it,” Foster said. “He hears us out. He tells us how he feels.”

Leadership committee members described their team as a more disciplined unit heading into the 2023 season. That’s exactly what Shook was hoping to hear.

“It makes me feel good that everybody on the team trusts me,” Ceman said. “It’s not pressure but just knowing we have to do everything the right way and show our leadership to the team, knowing that we’ll take the team as far as we can go.”