PrepGridiron Posted April 12, 2018 Report Share Posted April 12, 2018 Starts in ~25 minutes. We have done this a couple of times, we have a good set of questions for coach but we’d ask you let the coach answer the questions and save any additional questions/feedback for the end, if time permits. Thanks all. Should be fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2018 Hi Everyone, We are about to start. First, we'd like to welcome Coach Wright to Prepgridiron.com. Coach Wright is the head coach at IMG Academy Before joining IMG Academy in April 2015, Coach Wright was top-ranked Carmel (IN) High School’s head coach for the past five seasons. With Carmel, he oversaw a tradition-rich program ranked as high as no. 19 in USA Today’s Super 25 national high school football rankings. During his tenure, Coach Wright led his team to three state championship finals, claiming the Class 6A title in 2011 when his team ended the year ranked no. 8 in the country by USA Today. Prior to joining Carmel, Kevin served as Western Kentucky University’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach while leading the school’s transition into Division IA. Before his collegiate time, he coached at national high school powers like Tulsa Union, Indianapolis Warren Central and Louisville Trinity. With Warren, his squad won three-straight Class 6A state championships and was ranked in the top-25 for four consecutive years. Kevin is the son of legendary Larry “Bud” Wright, one of the top-25 all-time winningest coaches in the history of high school football, who is entering his 50th season. 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 have done in the past, 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...
Coach Wright Posted April 12, 2018 Report Share Posted April 12, 2018 I appreciate the opportunity to be on tonight its always great to be able to talk HS football in April! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2018 1 minute ago, Coach Wright said: I appreciate the opportunity to be on tonight its always great to be able to talk HS football in April! Coach, thank you for joining. First question: What is the best team you have played while at IMG? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedZone Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 2 minutes ago, Coach Wright said: I appreciate the opportunity to be on tonight its always great to be able to talk HS football in April! A lot of track/football talk.....some seem to think fast times in the 4x100, 4x200, and etc = football success. I'm NOT one of those, however. IMG track doesn't seem that impressive to me nationally... How important is track to you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 With the schedules we have played, it’s impossible to declare one specific team as the ‘best.’ Looking back, I’d say the teams in the New Jersey Big North Conference – Paramus, St. Joe, St. Peter’s Prep and Bergen – were great opponents and we got to see why those are such proud programs. Then you have St. John’s College in D.C., who is an annual rival for us and was the last team to beat us. I remember both Grayson and Hoover as not only great teams, but probably the best road atmospheres we’ve experienced. The past two seasons, Corona Centennial was incredible, and that 2016 game still stands out as one of the craziest I can remember. Chandler was outstanding. But then again, even though we schedule nationally we still play a lot of teams here in Florida because the overall competition is so fierce with schools like Cocoa, Miami Central, Carol City, Miami Northwestern, American Heritage and Trinity Christian. Every single one of those teams presented unique challenges and all stand out. 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Do you think there should be a high school playoff in order to determine a "true" national champion? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 As great as that could be for high school football and fans of the sport, you have to be mindful of other sports kids play around the country. A lot of student-athletes play multiple sports and may not be able to continue playing all the way into late-December since they would just be coming off of a state title game in most cases, which is always going to be the ultimate goal for most programs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedZone Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 IMG Academy's best 100 meters time this year is 10.91 by a non football player, I believe. Do football players even run track at IMG. Thanks.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 After spending years (and having success) at traditional, public high school programs, why did you choose to take over at IMG? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMaximumHornetSting Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 How hard is it to actually fill up a 10 game schedule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 I didn’t know that much about the program before they reached out to me. They had only had a high school team for 3 semesters, and most of what I had heard had to do more with some of the NFL training the Academy does. But the more I learned about it, the more it looked like a great opportunity to work with and develop some of the most intrinsically motivated, not the most talented, the most intrinsically motivated kids in the world. We actually had kids from 27 different states and 8 different countries this year. Players and their families who choose to attend IMG are sacrificing a lot to make this a reality. The players’ work ethic here is incredible. Plus, IMG has invested a lot into the academic programming and by the time they reached out to me, I really wanted my own children to be enrolled in the school. Both of my children are students here, and are having a great experience. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Did you ever think you'd be playing an opponent (as you are in Mater Dei) with the same number of elite recruits as your team? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 High level players are not just coming to IMG Academy there are teams with great players all over the country. So we fully expected to play teams with as much talent as us. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 You've coached in several states, what are the differences you see in each of the states? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Coaching takes you a lot of places, and from every state I’ve either coached in or programs I’ve coached against, there are big-time programs who could compete against just about anyone else in the country. There are great programs from coast to coast. But you learn that there is some truth to regional stereotypes in a lot of cases. Teams up north, especially in the northeast, play with a lot of power and bring a lot of size to the field. Teams out west play with more finesse and emphasize offense. Then you have the south, and the players’ speed, on average, isn’t comparable anywhere else. This is also a big reason we like to schedule nationally for our program, so our players can see and experience the different styles of play across the country. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mjd33 Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Coach Wright, thanks for joining us. Who’s the most talented/dominant player you coached at IMG at any position ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses McGill Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 3 minutes ago, RedZone said: IMG Academy's best 100 meters time this year is 10.91 by a non football player, I believe. Do football players even run track at IMG. Thanks.... I know the program a little bit, and some of the football players have ran track over the years, or at least trained with the track program when the two programs both practiced in the afternoon. But now football trains in the morning before school, so the schedules don't line up as they used to. Some of the more notable football players to run track at IMG were, from recollection, Nick Thomas (Wisconsin LB), Drake Davis (LSU WR), John Tauber (UCF LB) and I remember one kid from Sweden, Simon Udrop, actually switched fully to track for his senior year. I'm probably forgetting a few, but that's who I can remember. Pretty much all the track kids at IMG are dedicated to track. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Is there any program you have tried to model yours after? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Taron Vincent, who was a gamechanger type of player on the interior line, I have never seen a defensive tackle make as many players or dominate a game like he could. But the best pure athlete was definitely Drake Davis, who is at LSU now. At the start of 2015, he scored touchdowns each of the first seven times he touched the ball. Kickoff return, catching, rushing… he was electric. Even more impressive was that he didn’t even play football the previous year at Fork Union, he only played soccer. He was able to pick up and dominate like he did very quickly. While he was here, he would also train with the soccer team sometimes, ran track (electronically timed at 4.33 in the 40) and would run out on the court during basketball halftimes and do slam-dunk contests without warming up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World Citizen Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Is there a style of play that is most difficult to prepare for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddyr2 Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Hello Coach, Thanks for joining us. can you Give us an insight on your thoughts on the game versus mater Dei? Your thoughts on Coach Rollinson. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Wright Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 We really try and model our program after college programs. The daily schedule of practice, classes, meals and study table is balanced to provide the most comprehensive prep for the next level so that our student-athletes get on campus ready to contribute and compete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrepGridiron Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Who has been your best/most talented/most dominant player at any position since you have gotten to IMG? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardhit1 Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Coach , recruiting 17&18 year olds from several states away and country’s for the fact, how are they adapting socially, personally and emotionally? I am not sure what IMG has to offer outside athletics&academics. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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