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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


John McKissick: 7 Keys to Long-Term Success

by: David Purdum
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McKissick, 84, entered his 59th season at Summerville in September with a record 576 wins. He’s accomplished the astonishing feat with a plethora of offenses, from the wing-T to the wishbone to his current spread attack. His defense also has changed with the times, transforming from a wide-tackle 6 and 50 look used to defend the tight ground attacks of the past to a multiple scheme designed to stop the modern spread offenses.

“You’ve got to change with the material you have,” McKissick said. That doesn’t mean the veteran coach will make a change just for the sake of change.

“He’s adjusted with the times, but you’ve got to convince him,” said longtime assistant coach Fred Edwards, who has spent 35 seasons on McKissick’s staff. “He’s pretty sharp; you have to get up on the board and convince him that you know what you’re talking about. You’re just not going to throw in a scheme and have him automatically believe in it. If he doesn’t agree with it, he’ll go back to the things that have helped to get to where he is now.”

While the schemes have changed, McKissick’s character has not. He’s a beloved figure in the community and a humble legend. “If you didn’t know John McKissick, you would think he was one game above .500, just trying to keep his job,” said Summerville boys basketball coach and longtime friend Greg Elliott. “He’s still a very humble, very approachable guy.”
Elliot can remember seeing McKissick out and about in the early 1980s. “My dad pointed him out to me,” Elliot recalled. “He said, ‘There’s Coach McKissick, the legendary football coach. He’s getting ready to retire.’ That was 30 years ago.” From the first 30 years to the next 30, there has been absolutely no drop off in the level of McKissick’s success.

Summerville has averaged more than nine wins per season and has won five of its 10 state championships since 1980.
The legendary coach recently visited with AFM and broke down his seven keys to longterm success.
McKissick’s 7 Keys to Long-term Success

1. Evolving Offense - McKissick’s offenses have been potent for six decades. They just haven’t always looked the same. For the vast majority of his career, McKissick estimates his offenses featured a “70/30” run-to-pass ratio. He’s run the wishbone, the wing-T, the split-back veer and a lot of I-formation. That changed when current Georgia star receiver A.J. Green came through the system in the mid-2000s. “A lot of the younger kids really looked up to A.J.,” said McKissick. “We recognized it and have become more of a spread passing team.”

Still, the Summerville coaching staff is always looking for ways to run the football. Two years ago, offensive coordinator Joe Call, McKissick’s grandson and a former Summerville quarterback, was informed of a tendency that opponents had pinpointed in his offense. “I’m friends with a defensive coordinator from another program, and he told me that we were showing a tendency with our back being on the right or the left,” said Call. “He told me that we run these certain plays when he’s on the right and these plays when he’s on the left. So I went back and looked at it, and sure enough we were showing nearly 100-percent tendency. I said we’ll solve that and put our back directly behind the QB.”

The change would give Summerville a Pistol-look to its offense, but before he could make the adjustment, Call had to convince his grandfather that the switch would work. “I can say this because he’s my grandfather, but he’s still old-school,” said Call with a chuckle. “He said, ‘You’re trying to run the Pistol offense, with running the quarterback. Why don’t we just get in the I-formation?’ I told him we’re not running the Pistol. We’re still running the same plays that you did back in the 60s and 70s, just out of the shotgun.” McKissick agreed and saw a surge in the offensive production.
“It’s been working great,” said Call. “Since we implemented it, our offensive production went up, and our points per game went up. Every once in a while we’ll get into the I for him, but as long as we’re moving the ball and putting up points, he’s happy with it.”

One of the things that have not changed is McKissick’s blocking philosophy. “I don’t believe in knockdown blocks,” he said. “We teach our linemen to glue-on, instead of going for the knockdown. If they go for the knockdown and get three or four a game, they’ll probably have many more where they’ll miss the block or have the guy just get up and make the play anyway.”

2. Pursuing Defense - Edwards remembers how different his defenses were 20 years ago, when Summerville was using tight defensive formations like wide-tackle 6 and 50 look to counter the ground-oriented offenses of the past. Now, he says it’s possible for Summerville to run a “5-2, 3-5, 3-4, 4-3 or 4-2” in one game.

But McKissick says, regardless the formation and scheme, his defenses are predicated on two things: “Pursuit and tackling.We stress those things all the time,” he said. “We’ve got to get to the ball and tackle. If we can be exceptional at those two things, along with being sound in our alignment, then we’ll be successful.”

3. Summerville’s Practice - McKisssick’s practice routine and schedule has not changed in his 59 years. Each practice begins with a 15-minute stretch and then transitions directly into special teams. The remaining time is spent on group work, where position coaches are encouraged to stress fundamentals.

“We try to get it all down in two hours or less,” said McKissick. “I think if we can get it done in an hour and 45 minutes or less, I think it’s better because they’ll hustle a little bit harder than if you drag it out.”

4. Special Teams - Almost half of McKissick’s two-hour practices are dedicated to special teams. As a team, they’ll spend significant time at the beginning of each practice breaking down the punting game, kickoffs, onside kicks, extra points, two-point conversions, field goal and fake field goals. “I don’t think many teams spend as much time as we do on special teams,” said Call.

5. Discipline - McKissick has never cut anyone. Now, sometimes they’ll cut themselves, he adds, but if a student-athlete is willing to adhere to McKissick’s rules, they’re more than welcome to be a part of the team.

Every player at Summerville is required to sign an Application for Athletic Team Membership. It includes 13 statutes:

1. Be neat and clean and have my hair above my ears and collar.

2. Not have evening dates prior to practice or game days.

3. Be home by 10 p.m. and in bed early before school days.

4. Never miss a practice, unless sick. If sick, I will notify one of the coaches.

5. Not be tardy for practice.

6. Be modest in attire. Good appearance is important, since athletes are always on parade.

7. Not curse.

8. Display good sportsmanship at all times.

9. Be courteous to officials.

10. Never fake an injury.

11. Not smoke or use tobacco products.

12. Not drink alcoholic beverages or use any type of illegal drug.

13. Keep in top physical condition (eating properly, working out in the weight room, etc.)

McKissick’s statues are enforced without exception. “We still run a pretty tight ship here,” he said. “We talk to them every day about academics and behavior. We tell them that whether you’re a starter or a reserve or one of the players that doesn’t get into the game, each player is as important as the first-stringer. We’ve got 85 people here, if one of them does something they shouldn’t we all pay for it. People will start saying Summerville’s football team is a bunch of jerks. Just one guy can mess it up. We stress that every day.”

6. Coaching coaches - When hiring assistants, McKissick focuses on a coach’s passion for football more than anything else. “You need to have someone that loves the game,” he said. “You can tell if you’ve been around them how they feel about it. They have to have families, wives that understand that it’s a lot of time and not much money.”

When Edwards started as a volunteer on the junior varsity squad in the mid-1970s, McKissick pushed him from Day 1, challenging him to acquire the knowledge to become a better coach. “I used to ask a lot of questions. I think he thought I asked too many questions,” Edwards recalled. “One day, I remember him making a remark, ‘Doesn’t he know how to read books?’ From that day on, I began reading as much as I could and attending coaching clinics.”

Edwards worked his way up the ranks to defensive coordinator. He just completed his second season as wide receivers coach and said he never really considered leaving for another job. Edwards said McKissick has mastered the art of allowing his assistants to coach, while also challenging and holding them accountable. In meetings, he’ll pepper his staff with straightforward general questions like, “What can we do to get better?”

“They’ll throw out a bunch of suggestions,” McKissick said. “Making suggestions is a lot easier than making decisions, though. But we’ll discuss and analyze them and figure out what’ll work and won’t work. I sort of coach coaches.”
At practice, McKissick reminds his staff of the areas they need to work on, but allows his assistants to work with their individual groups without looking over their shoulder.

7. Support of the Administration and Community - Do you think McKissick would have lasted 59 years if the administration and community didn’t support athletics? In fact, the support of the administration and community is the first thing he points to when asked about the keys to his longevity.

“You’ve got to be in a place where the administration looks at athletics as an important part of the total educational process,” McKissick said. “Some places, they look at it as kind of a necessary evil. That’s not the way it really is. You got to be in a place where the administration wants it. If you’re in a place where it’s not important, it’s just something that you do, then, I’d move on. I’d be lying if I said I played just for the love it. I play to win. Then, if you win, then you love it.”
After nearly 600 wins, there’s little doubt that John McKissick loves Summerville and vice versa.






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