Strong coaching histories mark first Marist-Mary Persons meeting
There are quite a number of similarities between the Mary Persons and Marist football programs.
Both have state championships in their pasts. One team has one of the all-time winningest head coaches in Georgia, while the other has a head coach with one of the top victory marks among active head coaches.
They meet -- believe it or not, considering all of the postseason games the two programs have played -- for the first time Friday in Forsyth in the second round of the GHSA Class AAAA playoffs.
"They're very fundamentally sound, disciplined, well-coached," Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson said. "But this time of year, there's not too many bad ones left."
Like Mary Persons, where only four men have served as the program's head coach since 1959, Marist has gone through little turnover in the head coaching position. Alan Chadwick has been the head coach since 1985, winning at least seven games every year en route to a 342-62 record. His predecessor, Dean Hargis, coached the War Eagles from 1968-84, recording 133 wins.
Chadwick's win total is fifth all-time among all Georgia high school football head coaches. He leads the state among active head coaches, besting Howard's Barney Hester by nine games, and Chadwick is four wins away from the total achieved by Mary Persons' Dan Pitts, who won 346 games from 1959-97.
"Their coach does a good job with them, and he has for a long time," said Nelson, who is 40-8 in his four seasons as the Mary Persons head coach.
Marist (9-2) has just one loss in Georgia this season, falling 24-14 to Region 6-AAAA champion and eighth-ranked St. Pius X. The 10th-ranked War Eagles lean toward the run but score a lot of points, averaging 34.5 points per game.
Fourth-ranked Mary Persons (11-0) hasn't given up more than 21 points in a game this season but has scored an average of just 28.7 points per contest.
"They're very aggressive, come right at you on a dive play then get it on the edge," Nelson said. "They have a methodical nature, and you just don't see teams do that anymore, and they do it extremely well."
Mary Persons also runs the ball quite a bit, with Zach Harvey recording 1,095 yards and Jaquavious Sims going for 799. But the Bulldogs also like to throw the ball some, with quarterback Jake Johnston throwing for 1,284 yards and 12 scores.
Both teams got a bit of a wake-up call in last week's playoffs, although neither were in serious trouble at the end. Mary Persons managed a 14-13 win over Wayne County, taking advantage of a missed Wayne County extra point to take control of things late. The Bulldogs controlled the clock in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, going into victory formation and taking a knee near Wayne County's goal line as the clock ran down.
Marist, meanwhile, was in a tight game with Pickens for a half before pulling away for a 42-17 victory.
"That's the way it goes sometimes with teams that you don't know much about," Nelson said. "You just try to survive and focus on the next week.
"We had a good week at practice. They have done a good job of being focused and keeping things in perspective."
This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Strong coaching histories mark first Marist-Mary Persons meeting ."