On a hot, humid August evening in 2015, Rome High football coach John Reid earned his first victory at the school in a close, 48-44, contest at Villa Rica. On Friday night, in this his 10th season with the program, Reid’s Wolves topped Villa Rica on the road, 28-13, to win his 100th game at Rome.
The win moves Rome to 3-0 in Region 5-5A play this season, gives them sole possession of first place in the region and sets the Wolves up for a great shot at another region title.
Shortly after the game, Reid was presented with a plaque honoring the achievement and a large sign celebrating his 100th win.
“I think one of the things I’m really proud of is that we did it (won 100 games) in less than 10 years which means we’ve been winning more than 10 games a year,” he said. “That’s really hard to do in the state of the Georgia. They’re not that many programs that can do that, so I’m really proud of that.”
The kind of weird coincidence that the first win and the 100th win would come at the same venue away from the friendly confines of Barron Stadium also wasn’t lost on Reid.
“It’s funny how that works out in sports sometimes,” he said moments after Friday night’s victory.
Leading up to the win on Friday night, Reid didn’t put the talk of 100 wins on the backburner but also didn’t focus on it much.
“Any time when you do the math and you average winning more than 10 games in a year, that’s pretty good for our community and our school. We’re not done with 10 years yet and we’re at 100 wins,” Reid said. “It’s not just me. It’s a ton of people that go into it. I get credit for the wins and the losses. It’s the players and the coaches who put so much into this too. We’ve got kids that are coaching for us now that we coached eight to 10 years ago.”
Reid also noted that the goal wasn’t necessarily a number of wins but getting to and winning a specific game.
“That was the goal but I never really thought about it. I thought about how fast could we win a state championship,” Reid said. “That’s the thing that exists that you play for. If I can’t compete for that, then I’m just not happy. The 100 wins come as a by-product of that.”
Of course, Reid guided the Wolves to a state championship in just his second season at the school in 2016, earning the first state football title won at Rome High School. His squad won the title again the next season and has been a perennial power in the state ever since.
Midway through his 10th year at the program, Reid’s record at Rome stands at 100 wins and 23 losses. Along the way, his teams have collected six region titles and two state tiles. His squad has reached at least the state quarterfinals in five seasons with four state semifinal appearances.
When reflecting on his favorite wins, a big smile crossed his face and he sat back in his chair. When you’ve won as many games as he has, it takes a moment to think.
“Of course the state championships because they were both unique. Even some of the losses are memorable. We haven’t lost to bad people. What I would like the young coaches to understand is the game that gets you to state is the most exciting one because you realize you’re going to be playing in a state championship game,” Reid said. “So Stockbridge (in the 2016 semifinals), obviously running clock on Buford (in the 2017 semifinals), and the win at Dutchtown (in the 2018 quarterfinals) in the rain when they were undefeated was really a big win. There are so many others like beating Marietta in the Corky Kell.”
Reid has several stops on his coaching resume so while he has 100 wins with Rome he has compiled more than 250 total wins at schools in Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia. He won two state titles in Tennessee and another Indiana and his teams have reached the playoffs more than times than you count.
“In 2015, the new Head Coach for Rome Football, John Reid, took his team to Villa Rica for their first game of the season. That ended up being his first victory at Rome. Tonight, 10 seasons later, Coach Reid took his team to Villa Rica and received his 100th victory as the Head Coach at Rome. On behalf of our entire athletic department, I want to thank Coach Reid for all that he has done for the Wolves,” Rome High Athletic Director Chris Boden said.
Asked if he has had much time to reflect on his wins, Reid shook his head. Anyone who knows him knows that he is laser focused on the season and the next opponent. He talked about how the wins do show that his coaching style and philosophy work, and he’s proven that time and again. He also noted that he and his wife Julie are more focused on the words and letters they receive from former players.
“The biggest thing for Julie and I is how many people contact us and tell us we’ve made a big difference in their lives. That’s a by-product of the way we operate the program. We’ve had kids who have ended up flying jets in the Air Force. We’ve gotten letters from kids telling us they were down and out and football is what saved them,” Reid said. “We just got a letter from a kid last week who just competed in an Ironman triathlon and he said he was able to do that because of the discipline we instilled in hm.”
Along with those letters are some boxes with more letters and newspaper clippings.
“We really don’t have time right now to reflect on it. We have a lot of boxes of newspaper clippings that we have never put in a scrapbook,” Reid said. “Hopefully someday we will be able to look at those. We also had our son play for us and win two state championships.”
As the crowd filed out of Sam McIntyre Stadium in Villa Rica, Reid surveyed the field and his players again. It was nice to win his 100th game at Rome but his mind is already spinning, thinking about next week’s opponent and what the Wolves need to work on to go after a seventh region title and to make a deep run in the Class 5A State Playoffs.