Two familiar faces are returning to football coordinator positions in Calhoun County this fall.
Travis England at Calhoun City and Gary “Boo” Griffin at Vardaman have both accepted positions they previously held on their respective coaching staffs in years past. England has experience in the post of offensive coordinator for the Wildcats before stepping down in 2014 after receiving the softball head coaching position. With the removal of the fall slow-pitch season by the MHSAA, however, England has the time in his schedule to regain the responsibility of running the offense.
“The last few years, I’ve just been helping with offense when I got done with softball,” England said. “Even when Perry [Liles] was doing offense and last year when M.D. [Jennings] was doing it, I still would spot and make recommendations about a few things, but I didn’t call the plays because I wasn’t down there every day. So, it’s really just stepping back into a position that I did for a while.”
Once M.D. Jennings was promoted to head coach this offseason after the resignation of Chad White, he reached out to England to see if he would be interested in regaining control of the offense.
“The more I thought about it, I decided I wanted to do it again,” England said.
England expects the Wildcat offense to look a little different in 2020 than it did last year.
“It’ll probably be a little more balanced because of personnel,” England said. “I want to be very multiple and diverse with what we do.”
When asked about how he planned to overcome the challenge of implementing a new offense without the benefit of spring practice, England was honest with his answer.
“Good question,” England said. “We’ve never had to do it before.”
In Vardaman, the story of Boo Griffin is a little different. Griffin, who served in years past as the Rams’ head baseball coach and football defensive coordinator, has made stops at Houlka and Starkville in the last two years before accepting the defensive coordinator position in Vardaman once again this offseason.
After spending time with the Yellowjackets in Starkville as a baseball assistant, Griffin found that he missed the game of football, and when the opportunity came knocking to come back to VHS, he jumped at it.
“I went to Starkville and got around all those coaches up there,” Griffin said, “but I just really felt like I needed to come back home to Vardaman. Just something in my heart told me I needed that opportunity.”
Although Griffin previously served as head baseball coach along with football defensive coordinator, he says that he likes the direction that his replacement Joshua Warren has taken the program, and he’s looking forward to the opportunity of not having to coach year-round.
“When I left, I felt really good about Coach Warren taking over,” Griffin said. “He’s a young guy with a lot of energy, and I think he’s doing a great job.”
Although coaches around the state didn’t have the luxury of a spring practice this season, Griffin’s situation is unique because, even when he left Vardaman in a coaching capacity, he still came to the Rams’ games on Friday nights as a fan.
“I’m excited about it,” Griffin said. “Even though I haven’t been there coaching-wise, I’ve been there on Friday nights. I kind of know these players.”
Schematically, Griffin plans to run a 3-4 defense that will help combat the spread offenses that the Rams see in their division, something that is a part of the ever-evolving game of football.
“Football changes,” Griffin said. “When the offense changes, therefore the defense changes. It’s kind of a different game.”
Both Griffin and England are scheduled to begin the season in their new roles this August.