Shane Boggs, Brookwood School head coach
Today’s interviewee is Brookwood School coach Shane Boggs, whose team defeated Deerfield-Windsor 59-56 last week in a game of 17 touchdowns and 1,303 total yards. Brookwood quarterback Rodge Waldrop passed for a state-record 698 yards. Boogs has coached Brookwood, a Thomasville school in the Georgia Interscholastic Athletic Association, for 17 seasons, winning 113 games, four region titles and a 2007 state championship.
1. How would you describe Friday’s game? “It was two different styles of offense, and both were rolling. They were doing it with two and three running backs, multiple tight ends, a power-run game. We were doing it with three or four wide receivers. We were running it well, too. Our back averaged seven yards per carry, but there were so many plays out there in space. Rodge did a tremendous job of getting the ball to the right guy at the right time. If you saw film, he beat some soft zone, he beat them in man-to-man. They made all kinds of adjustments, as did we. It was our best game as far as limiting penalties, sacks, drops and turnovers. We had no turnovers in a game where we ran 89 plays.”
2. What kind of player is Waldrop, and what colleges are looking at him? “He’s been a tremendous leader. He’s a hungry, competitive kid. If you watch him play, you’ll see all that. He’s a big giant kid [6 feet, 5 inches] with a strong arm. Everybody sees his arm. He's worked hard on his footwork and lower body to become a more explosive athlete, which has been huge. In today’s game, you don’t see many Peyton Mannings or Dan Marinos or Tom Bradys. You see more Bryce Young types. If you watched Friday’s game, he had 42 completions, and I’m going to say 15 were against very imperfect pockets, where he’s having to move around or slide up. I can’t say how many times he ripped a throw and they hit him. Rodge was great when the number one or two read came open and we had a clean pocket. He was also really good when the play broke down. Quarterbacks have to be great at both these days, and Rodge was great on Friday night. They were playing press man and blitzing people. He didn’t flinch. He has everything from Power 5 to Group of 5 to FCS to Division IIs that have shown interest. He did an unofficial at Florida last Saturday. Florida State is talking about a preferred walk-on spot. We’ve been told he’s No. 2 or No. 3 on boards at places like Arkansas State or Georgia Southern or Coastal Carolina at one time. We’ve had Indiana in here, Appalachian State. The recruiting era we’re in now is maddening. There’s such a high percentage of scholarships eaten up by portal guys, especially at quarterback. I’ve got to think that Friday night’s game is going to build more momentum.”
3. What are the teams like in the GIAA? What’s the quality of play? “The GIAA is a governing body. So it’s similar to when we’re talking the NCAA or the NIAA. A really good NAIA team is going to beat Division II teams. The same is true in our league. You see what John Milledge Academy [longtime GIAA member] is doing when they play all those that were in the GHSA for a while. Our league had the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft in Anthony Edwards. We had the Gatorade national softball player of the year [Meghan Gregg] from Flint River Academy. To hear people say there aren’t good players is silly. Our schools are smaller, so nobody says we can compete with Lowndes or Parkview or those schools, but when we compete against similar size schools, we’re going to do really well. We’re coaching very sought-after students. We have goal-oriented kids with goal-oriented parents.”
4. What would you like people to know about your school? “Brookwood School is a college prep school in Thomasville, Georgia. People know about the city school here [Thomasville High] and the county school [Thomas County Central]. We’re a great private school here where 100% of our students will be accepted into college. Our graduates have gone on to do great things. We have a sports hall of fame, and our induction class this year includes Julie Moran, the first female host of the Wide World of Sports and the first sideline reporter with Brent Musburger. We had a long snapper here [Robert Shiver] who was a captain at Auburn and was in the Falcons’ minicamp. Rodger Walker from our undefeated state championship team [in 2007] signed with App State and played for them the year they beat Michigan in the Big House and was second in the Southern Conference in picks one year. The mission of our school is to develop the whole child academically, physically, spiritually and socially. Rodge is a great example of a student-athlete that invests in all four realms.”