Justin Rogers, Thomas County Central head coach
Today’s interviewee is Thomas County Central coach Justin Rogers, whose team won Class 6A last season. It was the Yellow Jackets’ first state championship since 1997. Thomas Central is 27-1 in Rogers’ two seasons, tripling the program’s victory total of the previous two seasons combined.
1. With some time to let the 2023 season sink in, what was the legacy or storyline of last year's team? Were there some memorable turning points? “First off, it’s just an unbelievable accomplishment to win a state title anywhere, especially in Georgia in one of the highest classes because this state is so stinking good at football. Then to do it with a group of guys that are homegrown from Barwick to Coolidge to Meigs to Boston and all around the county, that made it extra special because high school football has become so transient now. There were a bunch of turning points in that season. When we went up to Houston County and had a dominant performance [winning 27-0 to improve to 8-0], that’s when we knew we really had a good football team. Then when you follow that up with a tight ball game, a gritty hard-nosed game with Lee County and win that [31-24], you felt really good about your shot. In the playoffs, we played a really good Rome team [and won 19-16]. That was a throwback, defensive struggle. That felt like a state championship game. When we won that, we felt like, ‘Boys, if we don’t mess this up, we can win a state title.’” [Thomas Central beat Marist 13-7 in the semifinals and Woodward Academy 49-28 in the final.]
2. What's the scouting report on this year's team? Where do you feel you'll be pretty good, and what are the question marks? “My concern is we have to replace a ton of starters. We’ve got one starter back on offense because the other one moved to defense. The one left is the quarterback, which is a good thing. [Junior quarterback Jaylen Johnson passed for three touchdowns and ran for two in the 2023 championship game.] On defense, we’ve got four back. Jayden Rubbo, Dee Reddick, Cam Brooks and Dannell Jester. Them jokers are really, really good, so we feel good about having such strong guys coming back, and we feel good about the standard that’s been set going 27-1. All our guys and coaches in the program identify with and understand that now. It was important to get that flipped back to how Thomas County Central used to be so that kids truly expect to be a good program. The mental aspect is huge.”
3. What do you make of Class 5A and your region this season? “You’ve got the 7A, 6A and 5A champions all in Class 5A [Milton, Thomas Central, Coffee]. That tells you all you need to know about how competitive it is. Our region is just dominant. All of our teams that get out and make postseason will have opportunities to make deep runs. It will be a war. It will be game 10 before this region is decided. All games carry such significance here. All will make noise in 5A. I think our region is that strong.” [Coffee and Thomas Central are scheduled to play in the final week of the regular season. Lee County, Houston County, Northside of Warner Robins and Veterans round out Region 2.]
4. As a coach, what do you know more about, and what do you handle better, than you did maybe 5-10 years ago? Where do you feel you've grown the most? “Wisdom and experience. There’s no substitute for it. Learning by fire and trial and error. While I pride myself on being an avid reader and a student of the game, meeting and talking with people, the greatest teacher is still experience and the tweaks you make from that. One example is time on the field. I’ve completely changed my mind set on that whole principle. I feel I should send an apology letter to Jones County for how long we were on the field. Sometimes less is more. I spend more time planning practice, being extremely detailed to assignments to coaches. That’s been a strong piece, nothing left behind. I’ve been part of some really good places. I took from Griffin to Jones and from Jones to Moultrie and Moultrie to here. I’ve taken the best of all three.”
