St. Pius Sends Defensive Coordinator to Falcons Clinic

For the fourth year in a row, Atlanta Falcons head coach Mike Smith did something on April 15 that not many other NFL head coaches do: and we're not talking about paying taxes.

On Friday, Smith opened up the Falcons Flowery Branch practice facility for a four-hour coaching clinic. All high school football coaches in the state of Georgia were invited and several hundred ventured through stormy weather to make the trip. Among those making the trip, defensive coordinator Jerry Stewart.

Stewart – a former head coach at Tucker and defensive coordinator for Parkview – says Smith is the perfect guy to pull of something as big as the annual clinic.

"He knows high school coaches around here and everybody appreciates what he does," the St. Pius defensive coordinator says.

Smith says that he notices the appreciation from those in attendance.

"It's been a positive response in terms of 'Hey coach, we appreciate you opening your house to us,'" the third year Falcons coach says. "I've learned very quickly that Georgia high school coaches are very serious about football. And when there's a clinic, they're going to have their pencils out and their pads out and they're going to try to gain as much new information as they can."

Count Stewart among those trying to obtain new information. After a defensive segment at the clinic, the D-coordinator learned an interesting new strategy on stopping the highly popular spread offense.

"I’m in a 4-3, so I’ve got a linebacker that I’ve got to take outside and play on a receiver," Stewart says. "We usually play five yards off, head up and hit him. Their concept is to play one or two yards inside, play four yards up and read another guy, and just get in front of this guy. So every time you go someplace you learn something."

Stewart also says that his players are more likely to buy into something if they know NFL players are doing it too.

"They break [techniques] down into such finite areas that you can maybe take back and use some of those techniques with your kids," the coach says. "And it’ll really help them a lot. It sort of reinforces what you’re doing too. You say, ‘The [pros] are doing some of the same things that we’re trying to do."

As for Smith, he understands the importance of high school coaches like Stewart.

"We want to give back to the high schools and the high school coaches are really at the core of setting the foundation for football players," Smith says. "I think it's very important that we can interact with them and let them know how important their jobs are, in not only developing football players, but developing good, solid citizens."

St. Pius finished 9-3 in 2010, finishing second in Region 5A-AAA behind Grady at 5-1. The Lions defeated Allatoona 24-17 in the first round before falling to Carrollton 14-7 in the second round.