Tony Lotti, Seckinger head coach
Today’s interviewee is Seckinger coach Tony Lotti, whose team beat Lanier 28-7 on Friday to clinch the 4-year-old program’s first trip to the playoffs. Lotti’s Jaguars clinched the No. 4 seed in stacked Region 7-5A consisting of state title contenders Roswell, Milton and Gainesville. Seckinger was in a similar position against Lanier last season – one win from the playoffs in the regular-season finale – but lost to the Longhorns 20-19. Lotti also led West Hall when it ended an 11-year playoff drought in 2013 and led Apalachee when it ended a 12-year drought in 2021. Seckinger will play the first playoff game in program history at Woodward Academy on Nov. 14.
1. How were you able to enjoy those final moments of the playoff-clinching win over Lanier? “For me, to be honest with you, it's never over till it's over. I'm that guy that kind of knows stresses to the very end, so to speak, but I can tell you that I think the best play call in football is the symbol for victory. And when I was able to give that call at West Hall for the first time that those kids had been in in 12 years, and same thing at Apalachee, and then to come have these kids and be able to give it to them and watch them execute victory, knowing that they're going to be the first ones in the history of the school to make the state playoffs, I think that's a big deal for them.”
2. What did you learn about your team’s identity through this breakthrough season? “One of our core values is fortitude, and we talk about not flinching, and I think that's one of the things I'm always trying to teach them: lifelong lessons and using football to do that. So that fortitude part, we talked about all week. It was part of you having to go on the road knowing everything is on the line, and we're playing it like a playoff game and just trying to teach through that. So I think that's the biggest thing, because we have one kid on our team who should've had a season-ending injury, and he came back and was in pads and ran the football. And it's like I told him, I said, ‘The lesson here for you is that when it seemed like you couldn't get through adversity and it's hard to see the other side of it, and then here for you to come on and see you can make it through it.’ So those things were what was big for us.”
3. Can you share more about the adversity your team faced this season? “This year's been crazy for us. We lost somebody at the beginning of the year, an adult who was building us a locker room, and we didn't have a locker room, and he passed away suddenly to a heart attack. And then from there, it's been one thing after another. The starting quarterback who's been playing for us literally since the second half of the Roswell game is a freshman who started out as QB4 at the beginning of the year and [he’s starting] because of injuries. Jaimen Williams is our 1,000-yard rusher last year, and in the Winder-Barrow game before we hit region play, he broke his leg. He had surgery to fix it, and he battled five days a week of rehab to try to get back. The fact that he was in uniform and got even one carry, much less a couple, to me was just a testament to that toughness and understanding how to battle through adversity. That nothing is permanent, and you can come out on the other side of it.”
4. How would you describe the play style of this team? How does Seckinger win games? “Our offensive coordinator, David Seawright, and his staff have done a really good job of being able to put our kids in situations to have success. Some people say, ‘Oh, they run this offense,’ but if they really look at it, we run a version that fits the kids that we have, and then that's where the successes come. We're going to try to get on angles and a lot of misdirection and things like that. Same thing with [defensive coordinator] Scott Rider and those guys, because we were technically younger on defense this year. That was the thing that really showed out Friday is just that keep working, and good things will happen, and our defense stepped up and really played well.”
