Roswell fires football coach
Roswell has fired head football coach Justin Sanderson, whose teams finished 0-10 and 3-7 in his two seasons.
Sanderson’s final game was a 28-24 upset of playoff-bound Walton, but it wasn’t enough to save his job after Roswell suffered consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1979-80. Roswell lost seven of its 17 games under Sanderson by three points or less.
Sanderson, who was promoted from offensive coordinator in 2011, joined Roswell’s staff in 2003 and and coached during one of Roswell’s more successful eras. The Hornets won a Class AAAAA championship in 2006. Sanderson has never coached at another high school.
‘’It’s just my home; I love this place, and it’s going to be hard to leave,’’ Sanderson said. “Ending with that Walton win and as well as we played against Lassiter [a 28-14 loss the week before against the region champion], I thought we’d have another chance. But the bottom line is I’m 3-17 as head coach, and it’s a results-oriented business.’’
Sanderson said he met with his players Tuesday morning to tell them of the news.
‘’Telling the kids was hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,’’ Sanderson said. “These two years haven’t gone the way we wanted, be we’ve used this platform to tell them that tough times don’t last. Good things will happen. They’ve kept the faith and kept working and improved throughout the year.’’
Roswell has made nine coaching hires since 1950, each time promoting from within its staff.
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53 comments Add your comment
Actually
November 21st, 2012
6:28 pm
Well said. Justin is a good man, and so are Huff and Coen. I’m sure the decision was agonizing, and the timing, crappy as it was, was more than likely done in Justin’s best interest. As much as we all would like to speculate, we really do not (nor need to know) everything. Roswell is a class act – all around.
Legitimate Persceptive
November 23rd, 2012
1:00 pm
First of all, Coach Leo Barker came into the Roswell program in 2006 and was a major reason for the state championship run that year. The peak of Roswell football was when Barker was Defensive Coordinator (2006-2007) and then head coach for three years (2008-2010). At that time Sanderson was O-line coach. If you were involved in the Roswell program at that time, as a player or a parent, then you would agree that Coach Barker was the most respected figure in the program. Yes, even more respected than Macfarlin at the time. Barker had extensive NFL experience and after his departure to California, Sanderson was given the job with expectations to win as Roswell had done in the past several years.
No team at Roswell will be as talented as the 2006 and 2007 teams, so yes, there has been a little bit of a talent drop off over the years but not enough to have 3 wins over two seasons. The bottom line is that Roswell was spoiled with Barker and that Sanderson was thrown into a head coaching position with the highest expectations. Sanderson is a great man and will do well in the future where ever he is as a coach but he was very young for this high stress coaching job. The talent level in the program today has potential to succeed with a coach like Barker.
Shocked
November 23rd, 2012
1:55 pm
Legitimate Perspective – I agree with a lot that you say and I was around and closely involved with the program at that time and Barker while respected was not the most respected individual around the program at that time there were many that were and give Coach Mac kudos for surrounding himself with individuals like Barker and Offensive Coordinator Gary Varner (key figure in their success) as well as Justin (another key figure in their success ) who coached the O-Line which was one of the best in the state and one of the best all around O-Line’s Roswell has ever had (if not the best) which was key in the 06 and 07 seasons.