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 Coosa Alumni |
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Former Coosa Coach Lowe is Head Coach at West Limestone
 | |  | | Photo by Athens News-Courier/Nancy Turbyfill |
Making a change
By Dale Constance, dconstance@pclnet.net
The West Limestone High School football locker room, once painted completely white, now bears the light blue that coats the Wildcats' uniforms. The walls of the locker room feature framed pages with different motivational phrases.
The aesthetic changes made to the West Limestone football program are easy to spot. They also were the easiest job for new head coach Josh Lowe, who hopes to turn around a program that struggled to a 1-9 mark last season.
Although this is Lowe's first head coaching job after seven years in the business, the Jacksonville State and University of Alabama alumnus has plenty of ideas to teach the Wildcats the fine art of winning.
"I'm working to make improvements in the way things were when I arrived in the spring," Lowe said. "We've worked to change the kids' mentality, to make them believe in themselves."
Lowe, who replaces now-Tanner High assistant coach Johnny Stevens, also has brought with him a sense of discipline. The new attitude can easily be seen in the players' eyes. At practice on Tuesday, the Wildcats were hard at work, doing whatever it took to catch the eye of their new coach.
"Coach Lowe expewcts more out of us," sophomore fullback Dusty Rose said. "This year when we mess up, we have to do (exercises) to make up for it."
Lowe earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Social Studies from Jacksonville State in 1999. From there, he went to the University of Alabama, where he earned his Masters degree in 2001.
Lowe himself also has a vast football background. As a player, Lowe was an offensive lineman at Northwest Whitfield High School in Dalton, Ga.
While Howe never won a state championship as a payer, he enjoyed two title reigns as a coach. In 1999, he was a volunteer offensive line assistant for Etowah High School in Attallah, Ala. That team went 14-0 and claimed the state title, the first experienced by Lowe.
The following year, Lowe enjoyed another state championship in his first year as offensive coordinator for Swainsboro (Ga.) High. That team finisahed with a 14-1 record.
Lowe remained at Swainsboro for one more year before moving to Coosa High School in Rome, Ga. There, he was assistant head coach of a team that went 6-5.
During his gridiron career, Lowe has learned several of life's lessons, including persistence an d teamwork -- lessons he hopes rub off to his players.
"We're getting there," Lowe said. "We've had a good summer. We're getting to be where we need to be.
"It's going to take time," Lowe added. "This isn't an overnight fix. The kids are willing to work hard and they've got a supportive communty behind them."
Not to mention a coach who already has gotten the respect of his peers.
"We've got excellent structure this year," said Brian Siniard, entering his seventh season as volunteer coach for the Wildcats. "We have a planned practice schedule this year which helps the kids become more self-disciplined.
"On his first day here," Siniard continued, "coach Lowe came in with a set of rules that everyone had to follow. It didn't matter who they were or how long they had been here. That opened a lot of people's eyes."
The best lesson Lowe said he can teach his players are those he has learned from football. The rookie coach said he will teach his players the importance of hard work and discipline.
"I want the kids to be better people from being around me," Lowe said. "Not just better football players, but better people. I'm willing to work hard. If the kids see me working hard, that will make them want to work harder, too."
As for the upcoming season, Lowe understands that a season usually is measured by the win-loss record. With that in mind, Lowe added that he wants his players to measure this season's success by so much more.
"I want us to know that we have worked to get better every game," he said. "I want us to be well-discplined people. When people look at a West Limestone football player, I want them to that he has class and integrity."
Another one of the many signs that hangs on the West Limestone football locker room walls is a verse concerning attitude. One of the stanzas reads "We are in charge of our own attitudes."
It's that verse Lowe wants his players to hold onto -- not just for this season but for the rest of their lives.It's also that lesson, along with many others that Lowe has to offer, that he hopes will help his team to one day reach a state championship.
"(Winning a state title) is every coach's dream," Lowe said. "That's what every player and every coach should strive for. Winning a state championship is the ultimate."
The Wildcats open their regular season August 29 at home against Clements.
Former CHS Coach Lowe wins debut as Head Coach
Lowe's debut a success
West Limestone shuts out Clements
By Paul Stackhouse
DAILY Correspondent
sports@decaturdaily.com
SALEM Midway through the final quarter of the game, West Limestone High football coach Josh Lowe took off his headphones.
Then he breathed a sigh of relief.
His high school head-coaching debut was soon to be in the books.
As the final horn sounded here Friday night, Lowe received a dousing from the water cooler as his Wildcats began their 28-0 victory celebration over the Clements Colts.
"I've worked all my life for this," Lowe said. "I've wanted to be a head coach, and now I am, and this is a good way to start it."
West Limestone senior running back Justin Sherrill had a banner night for the Wildcats, rushing for 112 yards on 17 carries.
But it was senior quarterback Joel Easter who would account for the Wildcats' first two scores.
With 5:37 remaining in the opening period, Easter called his own number, sweeping right for 12 yards and a touchdown.
Following the ensuing kick, Clements couldn't mount any offense and was forced to punt. Easter collected Joey Sutton's punt and ran untouched for 67 yards and a touchdown, giving the Wildcats a 14-0 lead that would hold into intermission.
"We did OK on offense, but it was our defense that did the job tonight," Easter said. "Not letting Clements score was important for us. Our defense tonight came from the heart. We gave it all we had and came out with a shutout."
With 5:32 left in the third quarter, senior running back Justin Hill scampered 51 yards to give Clements a 21-0 cushion.
As the third quarter was coming to a close, Sherrill's 3-yard burst up the middle for a touchdown provided icing on the cake and also accounted for West Limestone's final margin of victory.
West Limestone has won four games in the three previous seasons and hope the victory over Clements is a sign of things to come.
"We have got a long way to go here," Lowe said. "There's an awful lot more work that has to be done."
Searching for tradition
"Tonight, we took the first steps toward rebuilding the program here.
"We may have a ways to go, but we're all going to work together to bring back the tradition of West Limestone having a winning program."
The West Limestone defense held Clements (0-1) to a total of 45 yards rushing and 19 yards passing.
The Wildcats (1-0) had 230 yards of total offense, 192 of which came on the ground.
"We had some seniors to prove themselves tonight," Lowe said.
"They especially showed their leadership during the second half. They had the whole team ready to play.
"In the second half, we played wildcat football the way it is supposed to be played."
J.J. Owens Returns to Coosa
Coosa grad glad to be with Eagles
08/27/03
Erik Green , Rome News-Tribune Sports Writer
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J.J. Owens is finally being rewarded for his diligence.
The former Coosa High standout quarterback played on some less than stellar teams in high school and was an assistant on a Paulding County team that won one game in two years.
Now Owens has returned to Coosa to find the Eagles on the rise and the morale at his alma mater at an all time high both in the stands and in the locker room.
Im pretty excited to be back, said Owens, a 1991 Coosa graduate, who coaches a talented group of Eagle receivers. After I met coach (Scott) Chandler and had an interview I was ready to talk about getting back here.
Owens return was a long time coming, he said.
After graduating from Coosa, Owens landed a spot as a quarterback at Union College in Kentucky before coming back to Rome to play baseball at Shorter.
He finished his undergraduate at Jacksonville State and got his first job as a football coach at East Paulding six years ago.
Even when I was gone I wanted to see Coosa do well, Owens, 30, said. Its still home to me.
After being a college journeyman and a part of a few down years at East Paulding, Owens said he was looking forward to something special at Coosa.
This team, I dont know if they realize it, has the chance to be good, he said. With their athleticism on offense and defense, I think they are in good shape.
This years Coosa team is basically the same squad that made it to the playoffs for the first time in recent memory last year, with a few exceptions.
And the coaching staff is basically the same group that led them there last year, with a few exceptions as well.
David Ross came in from Tennessee to take over the defensive coordinator role and Owens fills the receivers position, a change from his familiar spot as a quarterbacks coach.
It was fine by me to coach another position, Owens said. Id like to be a head coach one day and you have to have knowledge of all the positions to be a head coach.
Owens also coaches defensive backs, something he has wanted to do for quite some time.
Coaching in general has been a goal for Owens since he was in college at Union.
I knew I wasnt going to play football any more after college, he said. Thats just a reality. So I knew if I wanted to stay involved with football I would have to teach and coach.
And now teaching and coaching has become a calling, more than a way to pay the bills, Owens said.
I intend on staying in coaching until somebody comes and carries me off the field, Owens said. Im getting a masters in administration, but I have no intention of leaving coaching. I would hate to know I had to come to school and not be able to coach.
Owens makes his debut on the familiar sidelines at Coosa on Friday night when the Eagles host Cherokee County (Ala).
Eagles have their Buddy back! NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
FROM THE CARROL COUNTY TIMES-GEORGIAN
Mt. Zion finally managed to shake the rebuilding blues last season. The five wins during the regular season were nice, but it was a first-round-playoff win over a solid Trion team that put the Eagles back on the map.
It's not unreasonbale to think they'll stay there this year. The "Big 3 of quarterback Ed Dobbs and wingbacks Cornelius Reynolds and Sergio Barnes -- each of whom accounted for more than 1,000 yards in 2001
-- all return.
So does Buddy Knapp, who coached at Mt. Zion from 1989 through 1996 and took over as the Eagles head coach for the second time earlier this year when Scott Hamilton left to become offensive coordinator at Carrollton.
What's the next step for the Eagles?
"We want to pick up where they left off last year," said Knapp, whose stops have included Carrollton and, most recently, Coosa before returning to Mt. Zion. "Goals can be real simple. Obviously, you want to be on the plus side of a winning season. You want to compete for a region championship. And you want to have an opportunity to compete in the state playoffs."
Knapp brought in a pair of 30-plus-year coaching veterans in Bill Crick and Max Yarbrough, giving the Eagles one of the most experinenced staffs in the area.
Bernard Holsey Signs with the Washington Redskins
CHS Standout Bernard Holsey was signed by the Washington Redskins this summer.
Holsey, 29, had one sack in 8 games last year for the Patriots.
Bernard has played for the Giants, Colts and Patriots of the NFL and the Dallas Despardos of the Arena League. In the NFL he has scored 1 touchdown on a fumble recovery, 6.5 sacks, played in 88 games and had 17 starts. His Arena stats are currently unavailable.
Bernard was Interviewed by NFLPLAYERS.COM. The Interview is below:
INTERVIEW
What is your favorite movie?
Glory
My motto is:
It's never as bad or as good as it seems
The best advice I have ever received (and from whom) is:
The best advice I have ever been given was: Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something, Larry Bing
My favorite quotation is:
Sometimes God has to break your heart to get inside.
Few people know that:
Few people know that my grandmother raised me.
What is your favorite food?
squash casserole
My autobiography would be titled:
The Man With The Big Heart
My craziest ambition is:
My craziest ambition is own my own business.
Pats find a place for Holsey
Pats find a place for Holsey
By TOM E. CURRAN, The Providence Journal
FOXBORO -- The Bulldog is in one corner of the Patriots mammoth locker room. He's got the locker nearest the equipment room. The Bulldog usually sits on his folding blue chair, his nose buried in the red binder that contains the Patriots' weekly defensive game plan.
The Bulldog is Bernard Holsey, a 6-foot-2, 286-pound defensive lineman with arms the size of legs and -- it seems -- a heart bigger than those arms.
Six months ago, Holsey was a football player without a football team. He was working at Bowler (Wis.) High School, helping kids who weren't very focused with their math, social studies and life skills.
"What a great impact he had," said Bowler's athletic director and football coach Bill Hahn. "He really helped our at-risk students who may not have seen the benefits of school. He didn't have to help us out but he did. He enjoyed them and they enjoyed him. He got a sense of pride when they did well.
"You hear about the whiners and the people in sports who may not be great role models," said Hahn. "Bernard demonstrated to our students that the majority are really good people."
Six months later, Bobby Hamilton, Holsey's teammate on the Super Bowl champion Patriots, is yelling across the room.
"Lookit Bulldog over there," Hamilton hollers. "Look how he flexing on those arms, look at that definition!"
The Bulldog looks up, a grin envelops his face. He shakes his head, then looks back at his red binder.
The Patriots plucked Holsey from under the nose of the Dallas Cowboys. He was playing for the Cowboy-owned Arena League franchise, the Dallas Desperados, an outfit coached by Dallas's special teams coach, Joe Avezzano.
The Pats brought Holsey aboard in July. He was outstanding in the preseason along the Pats defensive line, winning a roster spot. He's played in both games this season and made four tackles and a late-game sack last Sunday against the Jets.
"Sometimes I think about it," admits Holsey. "Eight, nine months ago I wasn't even playing. I didn't know if I'd be in this situation. I try not to be in awe of it, because I've been here before and I need to take it one day at a time."
Though not in the league last season, Holsey had been a pretty useful player before then. He played four seasons for the Giants and one for the Colts in 2000. He started 13 games for Indy that year and was in on 76 tackles including 9 in a game against the Pats. The Colts released him, but New England kept him on its radar screen. They even worked him out last Sept. 11.
"Bernard's a guy we talked about for a couple years," said head coach Bill Belichick. "He's no sleeper for us. We talked about having him on the roster, it just didn't quite work out. As things went along in the offseason, we were talking to Brandon Mitchell, Rob Burnett and Riddick Parker and we kind of pressed ahead with those guys. But Bernard had a good work ethic, he's strong and he always played pretty well when he had an opportunity to play."
Earlier this year, the opportunities were almost non-existent. The Patriots were the only team showing interest.
"I didn't know what to think," said Holsey. "There were times I said, 'Man, I can't believe this is the end of my NFL career.' But hey, I played five years in the league. A lot of guys can't say they did that. I needed to be happy for what I did achieve. If it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be."
Holsey and his wife, Shannon, settled in Wisconsin near his wife's family. His wife taught at Bowler and she asked Bernard to come to school and help out. Holsey, who went to Duke and majored in sociology, went for it. His background, he said, helped him reach some of the students.
"I know they thought, 'This guy can play football, yet he can do other things too, he has something else to fall back on,'" Holsey said. "I hoped they could use that as inspiration. People said these were problem kids. Most of them were really just smart and needed a focus for their energy. I became a regular. If I didn't show up, if I had something else to do, they were wondering where I was. That was rewarding."
But not completely fulfilling. Even though the Patriots were the only team showing any interest, Holsey signed on with the Desperados in April hoping to get another look.
"Here was an NFL guy who really had the skills to be in the NFL," said John Norris, the defensive line coach for the Desperados. "He was a cap casualty in Indianapolis, but he treated this like his NFL. He came in and had to play both ways -- offensive and defensive line -- and when he left, he was one of our best offensive linemen. He had no chip on his shoulder, he just wanted to develop his craft and he worked hard every day to do that. He was a leader."
For coach Belichick, Holsey is a good player -- and a good example.
"Keep working hard, stay after it, get an opportunity and be ready to go when that opportunity strikes."
Former Eagle Bernard Holsey signs with New England
by Randy Vice
COOSA H.S.
1988-92 Coosa High School standout Bernard Holsey has been signed by the ...
Patriots Article on Bernard Holsey
2001 Eagle Wesley Bray breaks Furman Record!
The following excerpt is from the Furman University Website.
Defensive tackle Wesley Bray from Coosa High School in Rome, Georgia,set a new freshman record with a bench press of 465 pounds, and offensive guard Patrick Covington (Charlotte, N.C./Myers Park H.S.) was second with a lift of 405 pounds. Bray¹s record mark ranks second only to sophomore center Craig Morgan¹s team leading 480-pound bench press mark recorded in the spring.
"Wesley Bray benched 465 with ease, and we made him quit," said Coach Lamb. "He also vertical jumped 31 inches, and that's weighing 262 pounds. He's a raw kid who had three different coaches in high school. He¹s got a lot of ability."
Coosa Coach Knapp now Leads Mt. Zion Eagles
Former Coosa High School head coach Buddy Knapp is now the Head Coach at Mt. Zion school. The Coosa family wishes ...
2002 Graduate Jason Swinford Walks On At Valdosta State
Jason Swinford, a Coosa High School Graduate of 2002, has recently "walked on" at Valdosta State. The Coosa High Sports Information Network had the chance to interview Swinford. Click on the video link to view the interview.
 Jason Swinford
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