By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Let me start off by making this statement. Glynn Academy football has never been better than it is currently.

The program is riding high and is the elite football program in Region 2-AAAAAA. Why is it elite? Here is your answer Rocky Hidalgo.

Since Coach Rock arrived in 2014, Glynn has won 49 football games in five seasons. That averages out to almost 10 wins per season.

When you want to establish a program you have to make a statement in your community and the easiest way to make a statement is to beat your number one rival.

Prior to Hidalgo’s arrival at Glynn the Red Terrors had lost six of its last seven games to Brunswick High School and the Pirates had controlled the City Championship series for two decades. Hidalgo is 5-0 against Glynn Academy’s number one rival, and Glynn firmly controls the series.

Prior to 2014, Glynn Academy had not won a region football championship since 1972. In 2015, Hidalgo led the Red Terrors to the region title. The first in 43 years and a berth in the State Championship game. That had not happened in Glynn County since 1999 when BHS advanced to the title game.

Hidalgo has led Glynn Academy to 4 straight region championships. That is an amazing accomplishment and Glynn will be the favorite in 2019 to capture a fifth straight region title.

Coach Rock has turned Glynn into a state brand since 2014. In that timeframe the Red Terrors have won 12 state playoff games and made it into the third round in four of his five seasons.

Translation is Hidalgo has made Glynn very well respected around the state of Georgia, which is very hard when the power structure and population center is based in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

What is the recipe for Hidalgo’s success at Glynn?

1. The man can motivate kids. He makes kids believe in him and his system by being consistent but demanding. The Glynn kids know he will go to bat for them and they respond and give him their best effort.
2. Hidalgo can develop talent. He gets every ounce of talent out of his program, and his teams put the word team first and it shows on Friday nights.
3. The man can find and develop coaches. Glynn has the best coaching staff around because Hidalgo can locate them and he lets them coach. Kind of like a CEO approach.

The great football coaches today have to be able to delegate and hold their assistants accountable and none in these parts are better at that than Hidalgo.

When you are very successful bigger programs come calling. To ensure against that systems have to be set up to keep Glynn County coaches in the county.

The County of Glynn needs to get on a level playing field when it comes to coaches supplements. Did you know that AAA program Pierce County and AAAAA Ware County have a higher football head coach supplement than both AAAAAA high schools in Glynn County? That is disgraceful.

We have great head coaches in Glynn County and we need to have incentives in place to keep them in place.

Back to Coach Hidalgo the big dogs are knocking on his door and I would hate to see him leave one day.

It’s time to lock down the greatest head football coach in Glynn Academy history, and a man who is a valuable asset to our community.

He has put Glynn Academy in the spotlight in the State of Georgia, not only because he wins football games, but more importantly because he develops young men.