Piedmont Names Former Assistant Will Johnson as New Football Coach

The excitement can be heard in Will Johnson’s voice.

Johnson was recently promoted to head football coach at Piedmont Academy after working the two previous seasons as an assistant. An assembly was held recently announcing the move to players and the student body.

“My first goal is to get everyone excited about football again,” Johnson said. “We have been able to do that with the basketball program and that was a tougher job. Football has such a tradition at Piedmont and we need everyone excited about it once more.”

The new head coach wants to increase the number of players in the program.

“We want kids to come out and be a part of the program,” Johnson said. “Everything has been very positive. The kids seem excited about the direction we are going in. They know we are going to have fun.”

Johnson is a 2010 graduate of Robert Toombs Academy in Lyons. He played quarterback in high school and that position for one season at Valdosta State before moving to tight end. Johnson was part of the 2012 VSU Division II national title team and graduated in 2014.

“Similar to basketball we want to build a culture for football,” he said. “There is such a tradition here in football from region titles to state titles that it shouldn’t be hard to get back to where we need to be.”

Philosophy-wise, the new head coach said his background is running the spread offense and that will be what the Cougars use in 2019.

“I believe that is where we need to be,” Johnson said. “We have to play outside the tackles. Inside the tackles is not our strength. We want to use our speed to our advantage and be an up-tempo team. We will look to score fast and to score a lot of points.”

With his background on the offensive side of the football, Johnson said he will work with that area. Michael Wilson, who previously worked with the football program, is returning to help with defense.

With a background in the GISA and a smaller school setting Johnson said he fully understands how important football is.

“Most times when you have a good football season then you tend to have an overall good school year,” the coach said.

Piedmont will not hold spring practice due to the baseball season likely lasting until Memorial Day. Johnson said the Cougars will work throughout the summer for the upcoming football campaign.

The 2019-2020 school year will begin later giving the team the month of August to concentrate solely on football.

“My goal is to get people believing in an idea and building a culture,” Johnson said. “This has been very exciting for me to be presented with this opportunity. Now the work begins. Being named the head coach was the easy part.”

Johnson replaces Mike Parris who coached the program for one season.