South Cobb Football Head Coach Ed Koester Attends Atlanta Falcons' Coaching Clinic

Recently, head football coach Ed Koester and several members of his coaching staff traveled to Flowery Branch to participate in the Atlanta Falcons' Fourth Annual Coaches Clinic.

Hosted by Falcons head coach Mike Smith, the five-hour clinic featured Georgia State head football coach Bill Curry and University of Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. Those in attendance were also provided with four separate learning stations for the coaches to glean knowledge and review strategies.

According to Koester, events like this provide high school coaches with incremental learning points rather than sweeping changes.

Koester said, "But every time I hear Bill Curry speak, every time I hear Mike Smith speak, every time I hear somebody speak I get some little trinket of an idea, and it either confirms what I’m already doing or it helps me improve what I'm doing."

For example, last year's event had an impact on the size of Koester's offensive playbook.

"You’ve only got 67 plays in a game and if you've got a play card with 224 plays, some of those aren't going to get run, obviously. And you know you're going to run a play more than once," Koester said. "So what we’ve done is we've gone back to our offense and said, 'We don't need 50 plays or 60 plays.' So our offense is very small, but our execution is a whole lot better because we’re only going to work on what we’re going to use."

This is the third clinic that Koester has taken his staff to this offseason, but this one stands out because of the quality of the instruction and the bang for the buck.

"It's free," Koester said. "For me to take my staff to, for example, the University of Georgia's clinic, I spent about $700 for three guys. I can bring 20 guys over here for nothing."

The event was Mike Smith’s brainchild, largely because of his ties to the area. Many of the coaches in attendance knew Smith (or played for him) while he was a coach and a recruiter at Tennessee Tech University.

For example, South Cobb athletic director Chuck Stines was the head football coach at Pebblebrook and worked with Smith when Smith was recruiting some of his players.

"It's something I've always felt like as a coach you want to give back to your fraternity brothers, and whether you’re coaching at the high school level, the college level or the NFL, you’re in a very close-knit fraternity," Smith said. "It's an opportunity to get a bunch of coaches together and talk ball."

Koester said that there’s always a windfall for players when coaches return from this type of event.

"If you're a football coach, you're going to get motivated from hearing other football coaches and you're going to carry that enthusiasm back to your kids," he said.

In 2010, South Cobb finished 7-4 and in third place in Region 4-AAAAA at 5-2. The Eagles qualified for the state playoffs, but lost in the first round versus Newnan, 31-7.