Lee Chomskis, Lincoln County head coach
Today’s interviewee is Lincoln County coach Lee Chomskis, whose team will play Bowdon for the Class A Division II championship on Monday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This is Chomskis’ sixth season with Lincoln County. He has led the Red Devils to their first state final since winning Class A in 2006, when he was the team’s offensive coordinator. He formerly was head coach at Vidalia.
1. You've had good teams each of your six seasons, but this team is the first to reach the finals. What sets this one apart? “We’ve got a real solid group of seniors. I think there are 13 of them. And they’ve played a lot of football in the last four years. I think four of them have started since they were in the ninth grade. They actually played Bowdon in the 2022 semifinals with all those monsters they had then. They have a lot of football time, and our seniors have led well this year. As leaders, you’re only as good as those following them, and the younger ones have followed.” [The four-year starters are Mekhi Wade, Kelby Glaze, Christian Elam and Jeremiah Wynn.]
2. What's the biggest concern that you have with Bowdon? “I’d say my biggest concern is their size and their discipline. They’re enormous across the front on offense, and that’s going to be a big mismatch for us. And you can tell they are well-coached because they are disciplined. They’re where they’re supposed to be, they stay square, and they read keys well. A third thing I’m concerned about is this is their fourth time in a row playing in a championship. Our kids will go in the dome, and for many, this will be the first time they’ve been there unless it’s been with their parents to a Falcons game. Those three things really worry me.”
3. This will be Lincoln County's first championship game since 2006, when, of course, Larry Campbell was the coach and you were on the staff. You've known Coach Campbell since you were a kid. What are your memories of him as a child, and how often do you talk with him now? How involved is he following the team now? “My memories of Coach Campbell when I was a child was that he was just larger than life. All the small kids in this little town knew who the football coach was. Playing Little League baseball, I was scared to death of him. I wanted to make sure I did what he wanted me to do and for him to be pleased with my effort. If Coach Campbell spoke to me or acknowledged me in any way, I floated off into the distance and cherished that. Every kid in town felt the same way probably.
“We have a very good relationship today. He’s always been a father figure to me. I call on him for wisdom now, whether it’s finances or our summer plan or how to feed the team. We talk about strategy quite often, how you would do things on offense and defense. He’s taught me so much about community relationships and the value of that in this town. We’ve spoken a lot about faith and family. He’s just somebody I enjoy hearing what he has to say. How much is he involved? He’s at practice quite often. He might be on the golf cart, or sometimes he just sits in his car and watches. He came by the fieldhouse yesterday and watched film with me. He never misses a game. He was there at Early County last week and had to drive five hours. He still wants this program to be good. He built it.”
4. What do you feel that you and your staff have done that has helped unlock the key to the glory days, so to speak? That is, what was the most important change or implementation during your tenure? “Being in year six and having a chance to look back at it, there were two main things that were critical changes for us, and I knew within two or three days of getting here that those were the two most prevalent things I had to deal with. First and foremost was work ethic. The work ethic here was not very good. They were not used to doing what we do now. That’s not just football practice. That’s the weight room. Second was we were not very mentally tough. We were physically tough and had some good football players, but we could fold up pretty quickly. We had to build character. We’re all flawed and have our weaknesses, but we needed better character. If one was doing well, everybody was trying to tear and poke holes in it. We needed players to know how important it was to lift each other up.” [Asked how a coaching staff improves those areas, Chomskis elaborated: “Work ethic starts in our weight room. It’s a grind, and it’s every day. To change anything when you go into a new place, you’ve got to be consistent and not waver. So in our weight room, we had some fight back. ‘I’m not lifting.’ Well, you’re not playing. Once they realized that it’s the rule, if you’re going to be an athlete you’re going to lift, then it began to change. If you let one slide, you’re going to have a problem. What we have in the weight room is consistency. They know what to expect every day.”
