Good. Better. Best
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“Good. Better. Best. . .” For anyone who has ever played under Smokey Road Middle School head football coach Donny Blacksher, you know the rest of the saying.
Donny Blacksher played football on a full scholarship at Fort Valley State University and joined the Coweta County School System in 1979 as a health and physical education teacher at Grantville Public School. Under the leadership of his then principal Blake Bass and football coach Max Bass, he continued his teaching and coaching career at Central Middle School and Newnan High School before helping open Smokey Road Middle School in 1999. That same year, Donny Blacksher transitioned the Central Catamounts into the new Smokey Road Wildcats, becoming a head football coach for the first time and beginning what has now become a program with a rich tradition of high expectations and championship seasons.
In Smokey Road’s 13 year history, Coach Blacksher has led the Wildcats to 12 football championship game appearances and recently won his eighth county championship title, bringing his overall record to an impressive 69-14 as a head football coach. Coach Blacksher has also led the Lady Wildcats basketball team to eight championship game appearances and has won two girls basketball county championship titles during this same time period.
As impressive as his coaching record is, perhaps his most enduring legacy will be not his number of wins or championship titles but instead the lasting impact he has had on the countless youth with whom he has worked in Coweta County. Current Newnan High School quarterback, senior Nick Smith, learned the game under Coach Blacksher, where playing football was “fun yet challenging,” as Coach Blacksher always reminded Nick to “stand up for what is right and be a leader.” Newnan’s back-up quarterback freshman Bailey Bryant is only a year out from the guidance of Coach Blacksher, whose “determination and competitiveness are contagious,” as Coach Blacksher taught Bailey not only about the fundamentals of football but also about “developing as a young man.” This winning tradition continued in the Bryant family this year as Bailey’s younger brother and Smokey Road 7th grader Jacob Bryant took on the challenging position of starting quarterback in the shadows of his older brother, while Coach Blacksher constantly reminded Jacob that he would “put a number 60 on that jersey and make him a guard” if he failed to meet expectations. With championship number eight in the books, this young 7th grader, just as demanded, rose to Coach Blacksher’s high expectations, leading his team to Coach Blacksher’s eighth county championship football title.
Many young talented student athletes at Newnan High School still fondly remember and follow the influence of Coach Blacksher. Sophomore standout Tonarius Portress credits Coach Blacksher with motivating him to keep playing football when he wanted to give up and forming him into the player he is today. Newnan’s only starting freshman on the varsity team this year, JK Britt respects Coach Blacksher because he demanded that JK always work hard at whatever he is trying to achieve in life; he showed “tough love, but only because he wants you to be successful in life.” It is truly difficult not to become a better person when you spend time around Donny Blacksher, no matter a person’s age. He is always consistent, genuine, and fair and is constantly working to improve himself and others.
Coach Blacksher’s influence extends well beyond the middle and high school years, the classroom, the football field, and the basketball court. Jerome Walton first met Coach Blacksher in 1981 as a freshman playing football at Newnan High School. What he remembers most about that meeting was how far Coach Blacksher could throw the football. Walton says that he is “not surprised by all the championships Blacksher has won at Smokey Road, because he has always had that drive to be the best and bring out the best in his players.” And as proud as Walton is to have played for Coach Blacksher, he is even prouder that Coach Blacksher has also coached Walton’s own son Ty Herring, which is understandable considering Ty, now a freshman at Newnan High School, says that Coach Blacksher “wasn’t on you” as much for missing a play in the game as he was “on you for grades or disrespectfulness.” Walton went on to become the 1989 National Rookie of the Year while playing major league baseball with the Chicago Cubs.
Blacksher also played an important role in the life of former Newnan High School standout Vernon Strickland who went on to play football for Georgia Tech and then for the NFL with the New York Giants and San Francisco Forty-Niners and who is now a successful attorney in Atlanta. Strickland first met Coach Blacksher during his freshman year at Central High School where Blacksher was his health teacher. Wearing a baseball hat as a result of losing his hair from chemotherapy treatments, Strickland was a little self-conscious, but according to Strickland, “as luck would have it, at a time still a couple of years before Air Jordan made it cool to be bald, I wasn’t the only bald guy in the room. Coach Blacksher was bald too! And so began our relationship and his active influence on me over the next four years.” Coach Blacksher then became Strickland’s football coach in the ninth grade, where Strickland became yet another “peanut” wide receiver who seemed to continually try the patience of the young football coach. Strickland was determined to prove himself to Coach Blacksher and always told him how, “someday, I would tower over him physically and go on to be a big time football player.” It impressed Strickland that Coach Blacksher took the time to push him to perfect the curl-route and to listen to his dream of becoming a professional football player, both of which “had a significant impact in molding [Strickland] into the man” he became.
On Friday night home games, you will find Coach Blacksher humbly sitting in the general admission section of Drake Stadium watching his former student athletes make plays for the Newnan Cougars and quietly admiring the fruits of his labor. On a recent Friday night, if you looked closely, you could see that proud yet simple grin, almost a smile, as two of “his” freshman varsity players entered the game together, with Bryant handing off to Britt for a short run play. Of course, Blacksher quickly critiqued both young players and immediately had advice on how the play could have been more successful, continuing with his consistent pursuit of demanding that others give and become their best.
Coach Blacksher’s proudest role is that of being a man of God and a loving father to Cicely, Donya, and Desmond, the latter of which is a current 6th grader at Smokey Road Middle School, whom Coach Blacksher currently teaches. Yet, current Smokey Road 8th grade student and football player Darryel Hines probably says it best when he says, “with Coach Blacksher, everybody is treated the same way around him. He is always fair.” Thus, while his namesake certainly has favor at home, the young Blacksher will come to the line next year with the same hopes and ambitions as so many before him: trying to shed the name of “peanut” while living up to the expectations of his legendary coach: “Good. Better.
Laurie Barron, Ed.D.
Principal
Smokey Road Middle School
NBCT, English
770-254-2840
Donny Blacksher played football on a full scholarship at Fort Valley State University and joined the Coweta County School System in 1979 as a health and physical education teacher at Grantville Public School. Under the leadership of his then principal Blake Bass and football coach Max Bass, he continued his teaching and coaching career at Central Middle School and Newnan High School before helping open Smokey Road Middle School in 1999. That same year, Donny Blacksher transitioned the Central Catamounts into the new Smokey Road Wildcats, becoming a head football coach for the first time and beginning what has now become a program with a rich tradition of high expectations and championship seasons.
In Smokey Road’s 13 year history, Coach Blacksher has led the Wildcats to 12 football championship game appearances and recently won his eighth county championship title, bringing his overall record to an impressive 69-14 as a head football coach. Coach Blacksher has also led the Lady Wildcats basketball team to eight championship game appearances and has won two girls basketball county championship titles during this same time period.
As impressive as his coaching record is, perhaps his most enduring legacy will be not his number of wins or championship titles but instead the lasting impact he has had on the countless youth with whom he has worked in Coweta County. Current Newnan High School quarterback, senior Nick Smith, learned the game under Coach Blacksher, where playing football was “fun yet challenging,” as Coach Blacksher always reminded Nick to “stand up for what is right and be a leader.” Newnan’s back-up quarterback freshman Bailey Bryant is only a year out from the guidance of Coach Blacksher, whose “determination and competitiveness are contagious,” as Coach Blacksher taught Bailey not only about the fundamentals of football but also about “developing as a young man.” This winning tradition continued in the Bryant family this year as Bailey’s younger brother and Smokey Road 7th grader Jacob Bryant took on the challenging position of starting quarterback in the shadows of his older brother, while Coach Blacksher constantly reminded Jacob that he would “put a number 60 on that jersey and make him a guard” if he failed to meet expectations. With championship number eight in the books, this young 7th grader, just as demanded, rose to Coach Blacksher’s high expectations, leading his team to Coach Blacksher’s eighth county championship football title.
Many young talented student athletes at Newnan High School still fondly remember and follow the influence of Coach Blacksher. Sophomore standout Tonarius Portress credits Coach Blacksher with motivating him to keep playing football when he wanted to give up and forming him into the player he is today. Newnan’s only starting freshman on the varsity team this year, JK Britt respects Coach Blacksher because he demanded that JK always work hard at whatever he is trying to achieve in life; he showed “tough love, but only because he wants you to be successful in life.” It is truly difficult not to become a better person when you spend time around Donny Blacksher, no matter a person’s age. He is always consistent, genuine, and fair and is constantly working to improve himself and others.
Coach Blacksher’s influence extends well beyond the middle and high school years, the classroom, the football field, and the basketball court. Jerome Walton first met Coach Blacksher in 1981 as a freshman playing football at Newnan High School. What he remembers most about that meeting was how far Coach Blacksher could throw the football. Walton says that he is “not surprised by all the championships Blacksher has won at Smokey Road, because he has always had that drive to be the best and bring out the best in his players.” And as proud as Walton is to have played for Coach Blacksher, he is even prouder that Coach Blacksher has also coached Walton’s own son Ty Herring, which is understandable considering Ty, now a freshman at Newnan High School, says that Coach Blacksher “wasn’t on you” as much for missing a play in the game as he was “on you for grades or disrespectfulness.” Walton went on to become the 1989 National Rookie of the Year while playing major league baseball with the Chicago Cubs.
Blacksher also played an important role in the life of former Newnan High School standout Vernon Strickland who went on to play football for Georgia Tech and then for the NFL with the New York Giants and San Francisco Forty-Niners and who is now a successful attorney in Atlanta. Strickland first met Coach Blacksher during his freshman year at Central High School where Blacksher was his health teacher. Wearing a baseball hat as a result of losing his hair from chemotherapy treatments, Strickland was a little self-conscious, but according to Strickland, “as luck would have it, at a time still a couple of years before Air Jordan made it cool to be bald, I wasn’t the only bald guy in the room. Coach Blacksher was bald too! And so began our relationship and his active influence on me over the next four years.” Coach Blacksher then became Strickland’s football coach in the ninth grade, where Strickland became yet another “peanut” wide receiver who seemed to continually try the patience of the young football coach. Strickland was determined to prove himself to Coach Blacksher and always told him how, “someday, I would tower over him physically and go on to be a big time football player.” It impressed Strickland that Coach Blacksher took the time to push him to perfect the curl-route and to listen to his dream of becoming a professional football player, both of which “had a significant impact in molding [Strickland] into the man” he became.
On Friday night home games, you will find Coach Blacksher humbly sitting in the general admission section of Drake Stadium watching his former student athletes make plays for the Newnan Cougars and quietly admiring the fruits of his labor. On a recent Friday night, if you looked closely, you could see that proud yet simple grin, almost a smile, as two of “his” freshman varsity players entered the game together, with Bryant handing off to Britt for a short run play. Of course, Blacksher quickly critiqued both young players and immediately had advice on how the play could have been more successful, continuing with his consistent pursuit of demanding that others give and become their best.
Coach Blacksher’s proudest role is that of being a man of God and a loving father to Cicely, Donya, and Desmond, the latter of which is a current 6th grader at Smokey Road Middle School, whom Coach Blacksher currently teaches. Yet, current Smokey Road 8th grade student and football player Darryel Hines probably says it best when he says, “with Coach Blacksher, everybody is treated the same way around him. He is always fair.” Thus, while his namesake certainly has favor at home, the young Blacksher will come to the line next year with the same hopes and ambitions as so many before him: trying to shed the name of “peanut” while living up to the expectations of his legendary coach: “Good. Better.
Laurie Barron, Ed.D.
Principal
Smokey Road Middle School
NBCT, English
770-254-2840