coaches corner: coach griffin

High school:

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Where he graduated from Will Rodgers high school. The sport that he treasured was basketball but was really good at football. When he was in high school he idolized Jason Kidd, Chris Webber (both point guards), and the fab five(a Michigan basketball team which is considered the best recruiting class ever consisted of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson). The positions he played were running back and linebacker in football which he player for 14 years, point guard in basketball 18 years, centerfield, baseball and track. High school awards that he got were all-district, conference, and state in class 3a a skillful player in high school. In football he was a very physical player and was not afraid of contact, but he was also a very attentive player that did what the coaches asked in my opinion he was every coaches dream player. When he was in high school the way he balanced school and sports was that he had a mom that would quite frankly say “if you don’t keep your grades up you are not playing sports.”

College

The school he wanted to go to was Florida State, but ended up going to Oklahoma State on a full ride scholarship. When he was there the he played against some current NFL players the best defensive player was line backer Zach Thomas and the best offensive player was quarterback Drew Brees. He also played with cornerback R.W. Mcquarters who was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. Mr. Griffin says “The reason I didn’t go to the national football league is I didn’t work hard enough.” Another reason why is in high school football was fun, but when he got to college it became a job.

Coaching:

The sports that he started to coach were basketball and baseball in college and football in 2005. The last time he coached basketball in North Carolina during 2001.He now coaches the offensive-line in football and is the head girls weightlifting coach. The # 1 reason why he wanted to get into coaching was he we wanted to do as his coaches did and help kids stay out of trouble. There are two coaches who have had the biggest impact on his life the first one was his high school coach Mahlum who helped him realize that he could go to college regardless of sports and helped him turn into a man. The other one was ribaults own Coach Flynn because he has the players best interest at heart and he also got most of his coaching personality from coach Flynn who helped groom him as a coach, and he is also excited about working for a great coach in coach Flynn who he admires and respects. In coach griffin’s point of view he is more of a players’ coach than anything the reason why is he empathizes with the players and he understands were their coming from because he used to play. The coach in the NFL that he patents his coaching after is Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, because he is straight forward, tough, and has his players’ best interest at heart. In his opinion coaching is not all about winning, but is really about turning boys into men. The one thing that he really loves doing above all is helping his players see how important education is above all. The impact that he really tries to have is be a father figure and care about the kids in all their aspects of life.

JEAN RIBAULT’S FOOTBALL TEAM

The difference from when he played football and now is the kids are faster, stronger, and bigger there also is more networking and the kids can show there selves off to more colleges. Two kids that remind him of when he played in high school are Lakhalond Holland because of his build, and Terrence Thomas because he is not afraid of contact and is very resilient.

Lastly he believes Ribault athletics will be a big part of turning this school around. The expectations for the upcoming football team is for us to be a hard playing football team which all starts now in the offseason and we have a lot of talented players returning. HEY I SAY RIBAULTS FIRST STATE TITLE TOGETHER I BELIEVE WE CAN DO IT. DO YOU?