KINGSLAND, Ga. – His name is known throughout the state of Georgia, but Jeff Herron has quite a bit to prove to his new football team.
You read that right.
Herron shouldn’t have much of anything to prove in Georgia high school football, especially at Camden County. The best times of his coaching career came while leading the Wildcats. Now that he’s back coaching Camden, it’s a bit of a reintroduction to the area for Herron. He said that nothing he’s done previously matters now.
“Honestly I’m kind of new to them. I know their parents know me or relatives know me, know things like that, but the kids, I don’t think they remember much about me being here,” Herron said.
“I told them the first day I got here, what I’ve done in the past is not important. It’s what we do in the future that’s going to matter. Again, I feel really good about the guys we got and I’m looking forward to it.”
Camden County last won a football state championship in 2009 when it capped a streak of back-to-back titles. Herron left in 2013 for Prince Avenue Christian and returned to Kingsland this spring after stops at both T.L. Hanna High School and Tennessee Tech.
Herron said it’s almost like he never left because he’d still been connected to the area since he’d left.
“Some of my best times in my history have been here at Camden County,” he said. “We’ve always had friends here. I had some very close friends still coaching and stuff. So, certainly I followed from afar and both of my sons were coaching here so I followed even more closely in recent years.”
On a humid and drizzly Tuesday morning as practice started its second day, Herron made his rounds to the position groups and didn’t hesitate to pull a player aside for a bit of one-on-one instruction.
A scrimmage against Valdosta is coming quickly and there’s a lot of work to do.
Herron has a 312-54 record and five state championships across six different high schools. He’s won and been successful everywhere he’s been. Camden headlines that list. Herron won three state championships there.
But Herron is quick to mention that this is a new era filled with players who don’t know him at all.
Even though none of the current Camden players played under Herron in high school they knew of him from middle school or youth football days. Running back Jamie Felix said that Herron is still the same coach that he remembers from long ago.
“He didn’t really change much, he’s still the same coach, the same hard working coach,” Felix said. “He’ll push you. He wants us to believe in winning so he’s been trying to get us to believe in winning and I think he’s doing a good job of that.”
Receiver Saige Roche only knew of Herron’s name and legacy, but said that he’s already been impressed by how things have changed around the program.
“I didn’t really know him but I knew of him and how great of a coach he was,” Roche said. “He’s brought a whole lot to this program now. The way we practice, the way we do everything now is a lot different.”