‘Building relationships and character’: Prewett lays out vision for Dalton High football

Published 6:00 pm Thursday, January 9, 2025

New Dalton High School head football coach Chris Prewett says some of his most important goals focus on building character on and off the field.

“If we don’t develop young men of character and develop people for our community, then we have failed at our job,” he said.

Prewett, who was hired in December following Kit Carpenter’s departure, took part in a “meet and greet” at the school Wednesday and laid out his vision for the future of Catamounts football.

“A big important thing with me is building relationships and character,” he said. “Our program is 100% relationship-based. We can win all the games in the world, but if we don’t change people, then we’re losing at life.”

Prewett said he adopted that philosophy during his previous tenure as Roswell High School’s head football coach where from 2020 to 2024 the team was 50-13 and won region championships in 2022 and 2023.

“That’s what we believed in at Roswell; we stopped talking about just winning football games,” he said. “Winning is great. I’m a competitor and I want to win, but if we don’t change people, we’re not gonna make an impact on kids. Our culture is gonna have to be something that we develop along the way where coaches defend it, players defend it, and they ultimately take pride in this program.”

Prewett, who said he is “humbled and honored” to be a part of the Dalton community, said he was born in Warner Robins. He has coached at Marietta’s Pope High School, Johns Creek High School and Roswell High.

“Those 50 wins at Roswell were great, but changing lives for five years was the most important thing that happened there,” he said. “To me, that’s always been more important than winning a game. Our players need to have skills to handle themselves in the real world, to be a good husband and a good father. We want to hopefully give them the tools to get there.”

He said his goals for the Dalton program include ensuring every player graduates, winning region titles, making a run in the Georgia High School Association playoffs and ultimately winning another state championship.

“We’re going to have the mentality that we’re going to play 15 games,” he said. “Everything we do, every time we work out, it’s for game 15. We’re going to be there at some point. But if we don’t plan for it and we don’t work for it, we’re never going to be there. So that’s our long-term goal.”

Prewett said the Catamounts will operate with an emphasis on team.

“Nobody is more important than the team,” he said. “We’re going to play with toughness and that means mentally, physically and anything else along the way. We have to ingrain that in our program. We will be the most prepared team every single week. When our players play on Friday, I want it to feel like the easiest day of the week because they’ve already played the game during the week of practice. If we are prepared, we’ll play with confidence and we’ll play until the very end. We’re gonna create a ‘Never give up’ attitude.”

Among those in attendance were several Dalton Public Schools officials and community members, including Ronnie McClurg, who served as the high school’s assistant football coach from 1964-94 and the head football coach from 2001-08.

“I’m very impressed with Coach Prewett,” McClurg said. “He’s well organized, he’s got a lot of energy, he’s young and he has a great attitude. And if the kids will follow his instructions, he’s going to do a good job. I think he’s going to bring the program right back real quick.”

In 2024, the Catamounts finished 0-10. Freshman quarterback Caine Woods said he is looking forward to “changing things up” once he steps on the field as a sophomore in 2025.

“After going 0-10 last season, I think everyone’s going to come back with a new mentality,” Woods said. “It’s going to be a good season. I think when a coach like (Prewett) looks to build a relationship with a player, it’s always going to be better.”

Dalton resident Jason Carroll, who played football for the program in the late 1990s, said he has confidence in Prewett after hearing some of his goals.

“I definitely liked seeing his vision for the team and vision for our community through the team,” Carroll said. “I think it’s a good thing for the community, a good thing for Catamount football, and can’t wait to see the results of this. I hope to see us get back to winning again and I think his vision paves the path for success. It seems like he’s going to be very intense and I think that’s something good to get back to.”

Dalton Board of Education Chair Matt Evans said he was looking forward to welcoming Prewett and his family, including his wife Ashley and two daughters Blakely and Macie, to the community.

“We’re grateful that the opportunity presented itself to hire someone of his caliber and his résumé,” Evans said. “But his vision, his passion and the fact that he has just a deep care for these young men and their future, not only in football but in life, just makes us excited to get behind him.”

Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Steven Craft said he is “really excited” to see what Prewett brings to the program.

“This was an incredible process from start to finish and Chris just shined from the start,” Craft said. “For us at Dalton, we’re excited about the program he is going to build here. For many years, Dalton has sustained excellence, and we may have lost our way a little bit. So, it’s time for us to rebuild that foundation and I think that that is what he’s going to do. He’ll work with some of our existing coaches and he’ll bring in some other coaches from the outside, but I think it’s a great opportunity.”