High School Football Coaches Seek Powerful Slogans

    East Ridge coach Tracy Malone admits he’s a slogan guy, and he believes he has a good one this year in "Defend the Ridge".

"I will tell you when I think we knew that it was a hit with our kids was when we started seeing it on Facebook and Twitter."

   Irish coach Charles Fant uses the popular slogan, "Win The Day".

"When you lay your head down at night, and you say man, I won that day. When you start adding up all those days, by-products are you win districts and you win championships."

   Chattanooga Christian head coach Rob Spence says a slogan has to be meaningful.

"It can be an awesome weapon or an awesome tool in the power to motivate, but it has to be really meaningful to the players. That’s the most important part of that. Having a great motto or theme."

Said Signal Mountain head coach Ty Wise,"It’s always good when you have a slogan or something that kind of gets everybody collectively together behind one mindset."

Added Spence,"The power of the gospel for example is that Jesus could say so much in just so few words. So words have incredible power. I think the most powerful phrases are very simple, very small, very pithy, but they mean so much."

   Howard coach Mark Teague says a good slogan may reach beyond the field.

"Behind the scenes as coaches, we don’t know what battles these kids deal with before they come in here. You could have a slogan that’s applicable to football that these kids can take and use in their own lives."

    Malone admits there’s one slogan he wishes he could plaster all over East Ridge.

"The one I’ve wanted to steal forever is the Oakland Raiders "Commitment to Excellence". That to me is one you could take, and you could write it on every classroom in the state. Every classroom at East Ridge High could have "Commitment to Excellence". Every bathroom door, every entrance and exit, every T-shirt because that really does cover so many facets of everything."