PrepGridiron Posted March 22, 2018 Report Share Posted March 22, 2018 Hi Everyone, We are about to start. First, we'd like to welcome Coach Helmerich to Prepgridiron.com. Coach Helmerich joins us from John’s Creek in Georgia where he is in his second year guiding the Gladiators program. Prior to John’s Creek, Coach was the Head Coach at Fort Pierce High School in Florida. Before Fort Pierce, Coach Helmerich was a member of the staff at national powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas. He has also served as an assistant at Coral Springs (FL) and North Broward (FL). Coach Helmerich is a 4-time Army All-American coach as well as a respected track coach that has been a part of ten state championship teams in both football and track. In collaboration with PrepGridiron Logistics, coach has been kind enough to give us some of his time and answer several questions posed by the members of this board. As we did last week, we will be asking coach the questions and he will be responding in the thread. Feel free to respond and ask questions, note, however, that it will be at Coach's discretion whether he responds further. Lastly, we ask that you keep your responses civil and on topic. The thread will be heavily moderated so that we can encourage other coaches to come on in the future. Thanks again, Coach, and everyone enjoy. The first question will be asked at 8PM EST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2018 Look like Coach is here. Welcome, Coach. First Question: What was the thought process in scheduling a team like St. John's College who is coming off a top 25 national ranking in every recognized voter poll? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Thank you for having me guys. I appreciate it! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 I called around, to about 75 schools last fall looking for an OOS game with the help of prepgridiron. I had 2 lined up and they fell through. Going to DC was an easy sell for my parents and admin. I was looking for a good program. Did we bite off more than we can chew? Absolutely! The kids are and community are excited though. I respect what they’re doing there. They’re freakin loaded and will have trouble finding games every year. So for them to dish out some money and help with travel says a lot about where they want to be. 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Awesome response. Question 2: In your 2nd year at Johns Creek, you scheduled an OOS game against a nationally relevant opponent. Is this going to become an annual thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Yes, we plan on playing OOS programs every year. Next year we’ll host. Would be great to get an old Florida foe up here. Actually, we just had a contract issue with our other non-region game and I had to scramble for a game this past Tuesday. Ended up finding a team from OOS. Not a big name, but a decent program. We’ll host them this year and travel next year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Question 3. Can you please educate us on next season's team in terms of star players and key returning starters on both sides of the ball? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 We lose 3 starters from last year’s team, including our TE, who’s going to Arizona. We don’t lose any OL or DL. We’ll return a 3 year starting QB who can sling it. A safety in Neil Ilenrey (Ole Miss and several other offers), QB Zach Gibson, a 3* pocket passer, RB Nate Hope – Air Force, Army, and Ivy league offers, WR Micah White – Ivy League offers, DL Aaron Hamilton – FCS offers 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Question 4 You’ve coached/played HSFB in several states, what are the key differences you see between each of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 We’ve got another half dozen kids that will have FCS-type offers after spring ball. We started a bunch of sophs and some freshmen last year. So we’ll hopefully be much improved this season. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Indiana has done a 180 in terms of talent and facilities since I played in the 90s. There used to be 5 D1 players in the state in any given year. Now there’s more than 5 annually just at Warren Central or Ben Davis. Indiana was addicted to basketball for so long, it's crazy. So all those kids that used to play basketball are now getting out on the field. There’s some top notch programs there that could compete with anyone if they’d get rid of that stupid travel rule. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Trying to avoid teams that go only have 3 letters in their name. Haha 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 In Florida, it’s sad that the support doesn’t match the talent. Things those kids did athletically are just jaw dropping. So it was frustrating to not get the support from the admin and community. I couldn’t believe that my little hometown in Indiana had twice as many as fans / parents as did most of the games I coached in Florida. Georgia is amazing. Not just athletics. But the resources and manpower they put into the schools here is unmatched. Our area is known more for academics. So we’re a few years behind the Gwinnetts and Colquitts in regards to facilities. But we’ll catch up. The money I have for equipment, coaching stipends, etc is great. We do work our tails off to fundraise. But the community really helps out. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Coach, obviously great feedback here. Much Appreciated. I've only got one more pre-prepared question, but several follow ups to your responses. So if you'll indulge us a bit after responding, I'll ask a few more and open it up. Question 5 How is the process of building the Johns Creek program going and where do you seeing it end up? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Yeah the transfer thing in GA is a problem. I feel like Florida, they just said to hell with it. Up here, I think they're still in denial. We lost 7 kids last spring before and after I got here. 6 of those were scholarship kids and the other was a starting soph DE. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 I said when I got here that Johns Creek is a sleeping giant. We are top 5 in the state in academics and have the resources. The school is 8 years old and has never won a playoff game. I’d like to build it into something big time. Will we ever be IMG, STA, SJCP, or even Grayson? Probably not. But there’s a ton of talent in this area. So we can be darn good for a long time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Coach, thank you so much. At this time, if Coach would like to stick around, we will open it up to the members. My first follow up is: Can you share who the OOS opponent is that you recently scheduled? I know a lot of our GA fans here have an interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 It hasn't been announced. So admin asked me to keep it quiet. But it's a rural school in SC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiberalDonaldTrump Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 6 minutes ago, Coach Helmerich said: Trying to avoid teams that go only have 3 letters in their name. Haha Hey coach I hope you can schedule a BNU team from NJ in near future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 We haven't touched on your time at STA. What was it like playing DLS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Would love to. I'm 0-2 against those guys up there in NJ! 3rd time's a charm... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Helmerich Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 The DLS game was pretty surreal. Obviously you hear about them and read about them. But everything you see and hear it true. They were really well coached and that was the hardest hitting team we played in my time there. And it rained before the game. It was very humid that game. Got off to a good start with Bosa in the backfield on 1st play. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawgGoneIt Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 You mentioned transferring as an issue, but didn't really elaborate much. Do you think some rule changes are needed, or, better tracking and enforcement of the rules already on the books? Would you feel the same way about transferring if your team was gaining multiple high profile transfers rather than seeing them leave for other schools? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted March 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 One question that didn't make the cut for the five: Which team(s) was the best you had the opportunity to coach against? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECHS05 Posted March 23, 2018 Report Share Posted March 23, 2018 Hey Coach, Welcome to the Board... First off, good luck against St. John's... There will be a lot of Georgia guys on this forum that'll be rooting for you guys up in DC... Just curious... This coming season, bringing back so many starters ... do you see Johns Creek being able to contend for, and possibly win 6A-Region 7 this year? And for that matter... Do you see them being a serious player in the 6A playoffs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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