Ex-WC football coach, Bees assistant takes over at Gretna

GRETNA — With a deep breath and a reassuring voice, Kevin Saunders uttered the words that most every Gretna football player wanted to hear:

“We’re running the spread offense.”

And with those five words, it was clear that Saunders was the new football coach for the Hawks.

School officials conducted a several-month search to replace Chris Thurman, who accepted the head coaching job at Virginia High School in Bristol.

Saunders, a former William Campbell coach, was introduced early Friday afternoon as the new leader of the Gretna team that has won four state championships in the past six seasons.

“We’re going to continue that tradition here at this school,” Saunders said. “This is a job I wanted ever since it came open and I’m very much looking forward to working with (the players) and the community and the school administration. We’re going to keep this thing going.”

Saunders boasts a career record of 110-59-2 in stints with five schools.

He comes to Gretna from the coaching position at Shelby Valley High School in Pikeville, Ky., after three seasons and a 16-18 record. In those three seasons, he guided the Panthers to 5-5 records in each season, making the playoffs each time. His one playoff win during that stretch — the first in school history — came in 2007 when Shelby Valley defeated Bath County 23-12.

In that 2007 season, Saunders was named District 7 AA Coach of the Year.

“I talked to several coaches that worked with him and they said the kids are very receptive of him — like we’ve seen today — and play hard for him,” Gretna athletics director Steve Scruggs said. “He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.”

The hot button issue during the coaching search was whether the incoming coach would keep the spread offense, and that is what Saunders is doing.

Nick Miller, the 2007 Associated Press Group A State Player of the Year, was one of those who wanted to keep things similar to what it was during Thurman’s four years.

“I’m real happy we’re running the spread,” Miller said. “I didn’t want to change the fact that we’re running the spread. In the Wing-T, we’re not getting the right amount of playmakers the ball. But in the spread, we can get the ball to whoever we need to.”

Defensively, Gretna has been known for being ball hawks. Saunders is not changing much from Thurman’s 3-3-Stack. He’s moving to a 3-5 that will blitz often and allow the athletes the chance to make plays.

“I’m not used to as many athletes in one place,” Saunders said. “I’ve had to really coach a lot more in the past, but now I can turn the ball loose and let them take care of the rest.”

His longest tenure at any school has been at J.J. Kelly in Wise, where he served as football coach for five seasons. There, Saunders led the Indians, part of the Lonesome Pine District, to three consecutive postseason appearances for the first time in school history. He was named district coach of the year in 2000.

In 1993, Saunders was tasked with rebuilding William Campbell in the Seminole District and he did not disappoint. After going 5-5 in his first season, Saunders finished with a 27-9 record in his three seasons and was named the top coach in the Seminole District and The Associated Press Group AA Coach of the Year in 1995. He led the Generals to one Seminole title and two Region III titles.

“Well, I’ve never inherited a good team. I’ve been called the ‘Fix it guy,’” Saunders said. “When I took over at J.J. Kelly, before I got there, they were 4-36 in four years. When I left, we were 36-18. A lot of things have changed and I have taken over some really bad football teams.”

The 17-year head football coach will be the offensive line coach as well. It’ll be his job to replace two all-state linemen on the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

“You can be like Appalachian State and Florida and line up and run that football right at them out of the spread and get those receivers running the Jet Sweep and the option,” Saunders said of what type of spread he’ll run at Gretna. “I think you’re going to see a little bit more of that offense because you’ve got to adapt your offensive line to what you’ve got.”

Prior to his time at William Campbell, Saunders was an assistant coach at Brookville High for two seasons. He graduated from Radford with a B.S. in Health and Physical Education in 1987 and served in 1990 as a graduate assistant coach at Virginia Tech.

“I think any coach that can relate to these type of boys that we have and can keep the success going, it doesn’t matter to me if they run the spread or not,” Scruggs said. “I think the community would like to see the spread — and I like it personally — but if he comes in and runs the Wing-T and we go 14-0, we’ll love it. I think the people have gotten used to a lot of scoring and that would be nice.”