Armstrong named 2017 Coach of the Year

After leading the Daleville Warhawks to the Class 3A state playoffs in his first season as head coach, Rob Armstrong is The Southeast Sun/Daleville Sun-Courier Coach of the Year.

As Armstrong accepted the coaching position at Daleville, he knew that he wasn’t walking into a rebuilding process but rather he wanted to build on the success that former coach Josh Parrish had enjoyed.

“One of the key deals here was we weren’t going to tear down and start over with all of the success most of these kids had here,” Armstrong said. “These kids already knew how to win.”

Still, the 2016 Daleville Warhawks boasted a roster of nearly 50 student-athletes, while the 2017 roster had less than 30. Much of that attrition was due to a big senior class in 2016 but Armstrong also needed to make sure his players bought into his program.

“We had a very similar scheme on offense that they had in the past but the guys that stuck with us had to buy into everything we were doing,” Armstrong said. “You can’t fully understand just how much we, as a coaching staff, respect the team and especially the seniors that bought into this program.”

Part of that buy-in meant playing on both sides of the football, offense and defense, which isn’t exactly routine in Class 3A football.

Suddenly offensive players that had never played defense were now starting defenders and defenders that had never been on offense were tasked to contribute on offense.

One of those players was senior quarterback Chance Head. In Head, Armstrong saw a tough, physical quarterback that he thought could also play defensive back. Head went on to start every single game at both quarterback and cornerback for the Warhawks.

“He was a guy that had never played defense before but ended up playing every game at cornerback,” Armstrong said of Head. “He was a leader and everything you would want out of a quarterback but he was also a good cover guy and a really physical, good tackler on defense. We had to have kids like Chance that could play both ways for us to be successful.”

The success wasn’t immediate. Daleville lost its first two games of the season and four of its first six. With a 2-4 record heading into the teeth of its schedule, Daleville likely needed to win out to earn a playoff spot.

Not only did Daleville win the final four games of the regular season but came within a game of winning the region.

“There was no panic or finger-pointing when things were rocky, and we got past those difficulties and went right back to work every week,” Armstrong said. “We found a way to get better each week and that’s really all you can ask out of your team, to be as good as you can late in the season when we needed the wins to get into the playoffs.”

Daleville hosted Oakman in the first round of the playoffs and though a rash of first half injuries led to the Warhawks falling in the first round, Armstrong is already looking towards 2018.

“We just want to get better from here,” he said. “We’re losing a lot of guys that have played a lot of snaps here, but we also have a lot of guys that got some valuable experience this season. We want to build on that.”

Armstrong pointed to his players as deserved the credit for the Coach of the Year honors.

“That’s quite an honor for me, especially with all of the teams in our area,” Armstrong said. “There is a lot of great teams and great coaches in our area. To me, receiving this honor goes back to our team and the kind of kids we had this year, especially the seniors.”

Armstrong said that after Thanksgiving, the Warhawks hit the weight-room and started their offseason-conditioning program. Armstrong is already amped up for spring practices in March.

“What we get done after Christmas and into the spring will go along way to being where we want to be next fall,” Armstrong emphasized. “I just want us to be as good as we can be as a football team, and if everybody gets better individual, the team gets better.”