Photos by GRC Journalism

Montgomery County offensive coordinator and
21-year coaching veteran Steven Collins has been named GRC’s head football coach.

Principal David Bolen made the announcement the morning of Jan. 30, first to the members of the football team, who gathered in the library to meet their new coach. “It’s a great day to be a Cardinal,” Collins told about 80 players. “I want to turn GRC into a football powerhouse. It’s the best job in the state, right here.”

Collins moved to Mt. Sterling in 2010 with his wife, Shelley, who is from Mt. Sterling, and took an assistant coaching position at Montgomery County. Prior to the move, Collins lived in Georgia where he was head coach for two high school teams – Union Grove High School in McDonough and Stockbridge High School in Stockbridge – and assistant coach for one, Luella High School.

Collins said he applied for the GRC job because he “wants to lead a program again.”

“When the job became available, I had a gut feeling it is the best job in Kentucky,” Collins said this morning. “In my experience of playing against GRC, I see it as a place I want to be. I want to generate excitement and enthusiasm that will result in a whole community that is proud of the family atmosphere in the GRC football program.”

Collins played quarterback and receiver at Liberty University, from where he graduated in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in health promotions and a minor in physical education. He received his teaching certification in K-12 health and physical education and 9-12 science in 1991 from State University of West Georgia. Collins earned his master’s from Emporia State University in Kansas in 2002, and his doctorate in teacher leadership in 2011 from Walden University (Baltimore, MD), completing his dissertation on academic achievement and athletics.

While at Union Grove High School from 2008 to 2010, Collins took the team from 3-7 the year before, to 8-3 in 2008 and 9-3 in 2009, reaching the second round of the state playoffs in Georgia’s largest class.

At Stockbridge from 2005-2007, Collins guided the team to its first winning season in 12 years.

Collins’s first coaching job came in 1990 as a graduate assistant at State University. From 1991-2004, he was an assistant in various capacities, including seven years at Riverdale High School, four years at Marietta High School and one year at Luella High School, all in Georgia, before landing his first head coaching position at Stockbridge.

Collins is particularly interested in preparing players for the next level. During his coaching tenure, 59 of his players have signed to play college football at schools across the nation.

The new coach will come to GRC every afternoon after school to work with the players in weight training. He said he will announce his staff at a later time. “I’m extremely excited,” Collins told the team. “It’s an honor to be your coach. We’re going to win here.”

-Smoke Signals executive editor Makenzie Waltermire contributed to this story.