Garry Fisher, Locust Grove head coach
Today’s interviewee is Locust Grove coach Garry Fisher, whose team defeated Pebblebrook 41-7 last week, avenging a 27-21 loss from 2024. Locust Grove will open region play tonight at home against defending Region 2-4A champion Ola. Fisher got the Locust Grove job in 2022, inheriting a team that had gone 0-10. His first two teams were 1-19, but the 2024 team was 5-5, representing the program’s first non-losing season since 2016. Fisher has spent most of his career on college staffs, the first at his alma mater, Bowling Green, where he played and coached under Urban Meyer. Fisher came to Georgia in 2019.
1. What were the highlights of the Pebblebrook game? What gave you the edge? “We were extremely focused and ready to go. We were able to establish the run game. Our offensive line did a good job of creating seams for our running backs. That opened up the passing game. Armond Parker, our senior quarterback, is one of the top passers in Georgia. He was able to make some connections. We’ve got several guys on our defensive line who are returning starters, and they really dominated up front. In the second half we returned a punt for a touchdown, and the defense forced two fumbles and two interceptions and returned two for touchdowns.” [Donovan Barber scored on an 80-yard screen. Kiyon Wilson returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown. Zaymone Goodwin returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown. Martavious Candles returned a fumble 38 yards for a touchdown.]
2. How did you wind up in Georgia and in high school football? “I had coached college football for 20 years, and Georgia was one of my recruiting states. My last stop in college, I was a defensive coordinator for Tennessee State. In 2019, after the season, I wanted to find a place to go coach high school football. I was tired of moving around from state to state. [Fisher worked at eight colleges in six states.] Knowing the passion and competitiveness and athletes down here, I felt Georgia would be the best area to move to established. My first job was defensive coordinator at Charles Drew. I had a great head coach and mentor, Steve Robinson, who prepared me to be a head coach. After two years, the Locust Grove job opened up. I knew the state of the program and that it would be a major rebuilding job. There were several other opportunities available, but I wanted to go to place where I’d have a clean slate and could make my impact on a program that was not a traditional power.”
3. What impact did Urban Meyer have on your life and career? “It was amazing. He had a major impact on me, not just as a coach but as a young man becoming an adult. It was his connection with players and his ability to inspire and motivate them to be their best at all times and also that’s it’s more about the preparation than the game. It’s the offseason workouts, making sure the kids are maxing every rep and opportunity, challenging them to study the game more, showing that you believe in those kids and pushing them to reach their max potential both on and off the field. The player-coach relationship is what drives the program that we have. That’s the main thing I took from Coach Meyer. My junior year [at Bowling Green] we were 2-9. My senior year we went 8-3, and it was the same players. The biggest thing that changed was our mindset about how we worked and prepared and hit the weight room. That’s something that I emphasize with my players all the time. The work ethic has to meet our dreams and our goals.” [Fisher worked on Meyer’s staff in 2002 at Bowling Green and then on Meyer’s Utah staff in 2004, when Utah went 12-0 and beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.]
4. How do you feel about the game with Ola? “I feel great. Last year we started off really well against Ola, but they’ve got a really good team, and we had a couple of bad things go wrong and it snowballed. We’ve got a much more mature team this year. We fight through those ups and downs better. We’ve talked about that Ola game. We ended up losing 40-14 but came back home the next week and played Stockbridge and ended up losing on the last play of the game. [Stockbridge later beat Ola but ultimately forfeited nine games and the region championship.] Our mentality had changed just in that week. From a talent standpoint, we match up well [with Ola]. It’s going to be our ability to capitalize on opportunities and when we do make mistakes to bounce back and get on track quickly.”
