Enjoy challenge’

Cloy, 59, goes back to basics, will build a program from scratch at Johns Creek.

By Michael Carvell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mike Cloy apparently has found his niche in high school football.

If there’s a new school opening in north Fulton County, then there’s a good chance that Cloy is helping to establish the sports programs.

Cloy, 59, is the athletics director and football coach at Johns Creek, which will open its doors in August. Cloy also was a key figure in building programs as athletics director and football coach at Centennial in 1997 and as athletics director and assistant football coach at Alpharetta in 2002.
“The opportunity continues to present itself, and I enjoy the challenge,” said Cloy, who also was coach at North Springs. His career record is 107-88-1.

“I guess I’m at an age and stage in life where I realize I’m not going to be a 250- or 300-game winner when I retire. I’m at the point in my career where I want to do what I can to help develop young people and be a positive influence.”

Johns Creek, which consists mainly of students who attended Chattahoochee and Northview high schools, is a member of Region 5-AAA and will play varsity in every sport except football.
“We’re a young football program because not many upperclassmen decided to transfer,” said junior Austin Biggs, a defensive end and tight end who transferred from Chattahoochee. “We’ve got a long ways to go, but it is neat being part of something new.”

Here are Cloy’s tips on building a program from scratch:

Hire the right people. Cloy said he interviewed about 50 people for 24 coaching positions. “It’s fun to be able to hire good people who know the sport, are able to teach the sport and, most importantly, care for the welfare of the kids. You want people to develop an overall athletic program rather than their own team.”

Dividing the ownership. Cloy and school officials involved parents, students and teachers from both Northview and Chattahoochee in picking the school nickname (Gladiators); stadium name (The Coliseum); and colors (gold and crimson). He also created co-presidents of booster clubs to have equal representation from Northview and Chattahoochee.

Ease into football. Cloy learned his lessons from the rough starts for football at Centennial and Alpharetta and is going with a junior-varsity schedule in Johns Creek’s debut. “When you have a program primarily made up of younger kids, it’s just very, very tough to throw them into varsity that first year. We thought we’d try to have some success at lower levels and go from there.”