Collaborative approach leads to big things for Mark Farriba at Stratford

Walk into the suite of coaches' offices in the Stratford football fieldhouse around 3 p.m. on any given day during the fall, and odds are head coach Mark Farriba will be holding court with any number of people.

Sure, there's a lot going on in the hour before the start of practice. But the atmosphere remains calm, almost to the point where things are a bit laid back as a mix of people come and go from the office area.

"The door is open," Farriba said. "If there is something you want to talk about, or if you just want to come in and talk, you're more than welcome."

Farriba doesn't dictate everything that goes on during the week. In fact, he said there's only one formal coaching staff meeting a week during the regular season, one on Mondays before school starts in the morning.

The rest of the meetings the coaches might have through the week are informal, more like short conversations than real meetings. That's by design. Farriba likes to delegate responsibility, and he gives coaches the chance to take control of what they are responsible for.

"Our coaches coach," Farriba said. "They know what they need to do. We talk about it, we work together, and our players work together. Our deal here is that we're all riding for the brand. That's real important to me, that we're all riding for the brand, we're all on the same team and that we're all trying to go to the same goal.

"It's not always easy. Obviously we're all individuals. But that's the real beauty; when it all comes together, it gives you a great sense of satisfaction because you know that there a lot of people who have committed and invested in what you're trying to do. It's a really beautiful thing when it works well."

There is a trust factor -- both with coaches and players -- that Farriba likes to instill in whatever football program he's running. And that worked well for the Eagles this season, their second in the GHSA after more than four decades in independent associations. Stratford went to the Class A private school semifinals in early December, falling just a few yards short of advancing to the championship game.

Farriba, who just completed the third season of his second stint as the head coach at Stratford, is The Telegraph's All-Middle Georgia Football Coach of the Year.

"I love coaching," Farriba said. "I love the players, I love the coaches to be able to work together. That's one of the great things about our sport, is that it takes a lot of people. It takes a lot of hands to make it work well."

An example of how Farriba delegates responsibility is in the way practices are planned.

Offensive coordinator Jamie Dickey is usually in Farriba's office before practice, engaging in the banter of the day while working in discussion of the day's agenda. But, at a certain point, Farriba and Dickey get down to business, mapping out the afternoon schedule.

Dickey, who is also the boys basketball head coach at Stratford, is responsible for coming up with many of the team's practice plans. When they meet, Dickey is doing most of the talking, rapidly going through what they would like to accomplish.

"Everybody has a job to do," Farriba said of his coaching staff, which also includes defensive coordinator Ross Bridges, Cater Pierce, Walt Mays and David Bailey. "I expect everyone to bring something to the table. I'm not going to sit here and tell everybody what to do, or it's not up to me to come up with some sort of plan as to what we need to do. Everybody has input, everybody is expected to make input. When you do that, hopefully everyone feels like they have some ownership in what's going on."

The 2015 season marked a three-win improvement from the 6-5 year Stratford had in its first year back in the GHSA in 2014.

The Eagles (9-4) started with a strong non-region schedule. A 48-21 loss at Class AA Wesleyan, a team that was ranked as high as third during the regular season, was meant to expose whatever weaknesses Stratford might have had. That was followed by the first of what would become three meetings with Aquinas, with the Irish prevailing 35-28 with a late score.

Stratford kicked things into a higher gear after that, going on a six-game winning streak that included a 5-0 run in Region 7A-A play. The Eagles scored at least 41 points in each of those wins, with a 41-21 win over rival FPD being the closest of those games.

In the process, a strong running game developed, with three players (O'Showen Williams, Kasey Sanders and Tyler Jordan) all capable of 100-yard nights. The Eagles also benefitted from the receiving and defensive abilities of Quintez Cephus, who switched his collegiate plans during the season from Furman basketball to Wisconsin football after moving from quarterback to split end before this season.

"That's the thing I appreciated the most about our season, I thought from start to finish the things we did well we kept doing well, and the things we weren't doing well we got better at," Farriba said. "They accepted the different challenges we presented to them, not just physically and on the field, but also off the field in being a great teammate, some leadership things where some guys had to step up and take hold of."

Injuries on the defense played a key role in Stratford's second meeting with Aquinas, a 41-21 loss in the Region 7-A championship game. But Stratford bounced back after a week of rest, holding on for a 14-7 win at Calvary Day that might have been the Eagles' most impressive of the season.

Stratford rolled past second-seeded Pinecrest 43-15 in the quarterfinals, taking complete control of that game early. Then the Eagles gave Aquinas all it could handle in the semifinals, taking an early lead and then rallying from a 14-point deficit with two touchdowns 15 seconds apart in the final three minutes. Although Aquinas scored a quick touchdown to go back up again, Stratford nearly tied it a second time before a fourth-and-goal pass from the Aquinas 5 narrowly missed the mark.

"When we beat Calvary, that was just such a big win for us," Farriba said. "It was on the road, and on paper, we shouldn't have beaten them. But we played defense, and we stopped them. It was just a tough, physical game.

"I was just so impressed with our team and our coaches that night that I felt like we had a chance to move through this thing a bit, and we did. It was a rewarding, satisfying season."

This story was originally published December 25, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Collaborative approach leads to big things for Mark Farriba at Stratford ."