Prep Football: It’s a two-Cat race

Published 11:48 pm Thursday, April 1, 2010

After searching far and wide for a new football coach, Dalton High School will soon choose between two applicants that grew up with the Catamounts.

Matt Land and Preston Poag, who were teammates at Dalton for one year during their playing days, are the two finalists to replace Adam Winegarden, who was pressured into resigning by a small group of boosters in the aftermath of his being among three finalists for the head coach and athletic director positions at Perry High School.

Winegarden withdrew his name from consideration at Perry before a new coach was hired and, on Feb. 8, he resigned at Dalton. 

Now, after each went through three interviews, the last of which were conducted on Monday, the school’s search for Winegarden’s successor is down to two long-time friends — Land and Poag.

“We know each other very well,” Land said. “In fact, Preston was a teammate of mine for one year. He was a senior when I was a sophomore. I was the deep snapper and he was the punter.

“It’s not an awkward situation because we both want the same thing for the program. We’re just in different capacities since I have been on the staff and he’s in private business. We’re going to trust the process, the people involved and in the Lord.”

Land, 40, has been associated with Dalton football for 17 years, either as a player or assistant coach. He was a varsity player at Dalton from 1985-87 and a student-athlete at Auburn University from 1988-91 under coach Pat Dye until a knee injury in October 1991 ended his playing career. He spent one year as a graduate assistant at Auburn and earned a degree in aerospace engineering.

In 1993, Land joined the staff of Bill Chappell, Dalton’s all-time winningest coach who was inducted into the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001. A partner and financial planner for Browne, Draper and Land, Land has been a “community coach” throughout his almost two-decade tenure at Dalton.

GHSA member schools may employ persons who are not professionally certificated teachers as assistant coaches in their athletic programs, according to Georgia High School Association by-laws. “Community coaches” can achieve certification by completing the GHSA Coaches Education Training and Testing Program in “Sport First Aid” and “Principles for Coaches.”

In addition to Chappell, who won 317 games and the school’s only state championship in 1967, Land also worked under coaches Bill McManus, Ronnie McClurg and Winegarden. Land currently coaches defensive backs, but also has worked with tight ends and wide receivers.

Land said he “has an arrangement” with his private partners that would keep their business ties intact should he become Dalton’s sixth coach since 1946.

“That will stay in place,” he said. “I will still be involved in the firm and that’s the most desirable situation. It’s a great firm and I wouldn’t want to take myself out of that just yet.”

Poag, 42, played varsity football for Dalton from 1984-86. He was the team’s quarterback and punter and also a standout baseball player. After graduating from Dalton, Poag attended North Carolina State on a football scholarship. He lettered four years in football and three years in baseball for the Wolfpack. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication and is working to complete a master’s in sports management.

Poag, who has spent the past 11 years as a residential sales training and recruiting manager for Shaw Industries, was a graduate assistant coach at N.C. State from 1991-93 and an offensive coordinator at Newberry College (1993-96) and Virginia Military Institute (1996-99).

Poag also was a “community coach” at Dalton High from 2000-02, serving on the McManus and McClurg staffs as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. In 2001, the Cats reached the Class 4A state championship game, where they lost to Statesboro.

After his 11-year hiatus from coaching, Poag said the timing is right for his return to the football field.

“This is the job I always wanted,” he said. “I remember sitting and talking to coach Chappell in high school and telling him I wanted to coach at Dalton High. Coaching has always been in my blood and now it’s the right time to come back.”

Coaching has fueled the friendship between Poag and Land and their families over the years.

“Matt and I coach our daughters’ AAU basketball team together on weekends,” Poag said. “So, where we find ourselves today in this situation is not awkward, but different. I talked to Matt when I applied for the job and how I would have applied the last time (when Winegarden was hand-picked by McClurg), but this is a better time for me.

“And Matt talked to me before he put his name in for the job.”

Poag said the timing is right because his daughters, Alexis, 14, Pressley, 12, and son, Preston Jr., 10, are older and can better handle the time-consuming effort it takes to lead a high school football team. In fact, time away from family led him to leave college coaching.

“In college, you’re never at home,” Poag said. “That’s one reason I got out. You would have meetings at 6 a.m. and wouldn’t get home until 10 at night. That was tough.”

If selected to replace Winegarden, Poag said he would leave his position at Shaw Industries.

“Football is a full-time job,” he said. “I’ll have to leave Shaw.”

Neither Poag nor Land are certified teachers. If hired, however, each said he will have up to one year to receive certification.

“That’s common for people coming out of private business into coaching,” Land said. “It usually takes up to a year to complete the program and it’s a combination of online classes and some in-class observation time to see how you teach. One of the program’s stipulations is that you have the job before getting into the certification process.”

Land said he would work toward certification in math. Poag anticipates teaching a business class or physical education.

McClurg said in February he hoped to have a new coach hired by April 23. Spring practice begins on May 17.