Sean Pender, North Hall head coach
Today’s interviewee is North Hall coach Sean Pender, whose team is 4-0, having avenged three 2022 losses. Pender took the North Hall job in 2022. He previously was head coach at Brunswick, Pierce County, Crisp County and Brantley County. He was Stetson Bennett’s high school coach.
1. You've won three games that you lost last season, turning 1-3 into 4-0. What are the biggest differences from last year to this year? “The team believing in the cultural buy-in is a big reason. It is also year two with a new coaching style, different philosophies, and our student-athletes are beginning to understand the expectations we have of them and our program.”
2. What is the identity of the current team? “We are One Heart. One Beat. One Team. In The North … We E.A.T.! The acronym stands for Effort, Attitude and Toughness, a little something we picked up from the AFCA convention. We are building our identity by being people that will give relentless effort to accomplish our tasks. We want to do all things with the mindset of a champion. Our attitude is to remain positive, search for ways to be successful and figure out solutions. We are going to be physically tough, mentally tough and spiritually tough. You can see the weight room transforming our bodies for physical toughness, the meeting room and the classroom sharpening our minds, and our community pouring into us makes it hard to break our spirits. We are a team full of believers.”
3. You had a good job at Brunswick and before that at Pierce. What brought you to north Georgia and to North Hall? “Both Pierce and Brunswick were not good jobs, they were great places to be. Don’t forget about Brantley County. I know people might judge by winning percentage, but coaching at Brantley, my first head coaching job, helped me develop into the type of coach I aspire to be. I coached my entire life in south Georgia, and my wife, Dana, is from north Georgia. We would always come up to the north Georgia lakes to visit her parents and make trips into the Blue Ridge Mountains. When we visited, we always hated to leave. With our family situation being what it was, we felt it was time to start looking for job opportunities closer to my wife's side of the family. She made the move to the south for me, and in Brunswick we have a saying that WE Are All About The Family. So, we made a family decision to head to north Georgia. Why North Hall? Because it was a fit. I knew after several minutes of meeting with the leadership team that our beliefs on developing and mentoring our youth matched. The leadership team’s dedication to the importance of developing character, how they cared for students, and how they would allow me to lead the football program gave me a feeling that God has a plan that places me and my family in this community.”
4. What is different about how you've approached the North Hall job vs. other places (challenges that exist where you are that are different than other places), and what are some of the core beliefs you have that remain the same? “The challenges at North Hall are a lot different than ones I faced in Brunswick outside of football. Pierce County has a lot of similarities in the challenges outside of football. However, when it comes to coaching, all the players, no matter the cultural background, social economic status or race, love to be a part of something they can believe in. Every time I get in front of a group that I am about to lead, we talk about expectations, values and beliefs with conviction and genuine excitement. The results are typically the same. In Brantley we turned a losing program into a respectable one with ‘We Believe.’ In Pierce, we stayed with ‘We Believe’ and added ‘Championship Mindset’ and turned the Pierce County football team into a team that wins championships. In Brunswick, we went through tough situations outside of football. Our coaching staff and players were able to come together and help unite a hurting community by becoming a true family ourselves. So, we became ‘All About The Family.’ Still, a championship mindset was always the battle cry, and we started to win championships in The Wick. I brought that same ‘All About The Family’ motto to North Hall, but we needed to have our own identity. This year we re-branded our field house and bought into the saying ‘In The North…We E.A.T.’ We still talk about a championship mindset daily. We break down on ‘1 2 3 Team. 4 5 6 Family. Let's Go Trojans.’’ Eventually, our football team will be winning championships again at North Hall. Every place I have been since my days as a player at Valdosta State University, we have always told our players to ‘Play Hard, Have Fun and Expect to Win.’”