When asked what changes are expected to come in his first year as Statesboro High School’s
head football coach, Jeff Kaiser had one word to respond with,
    “Intensity.”
    Although he noted that didn’t mean no one at Statesboro wasn’t intense before he got here, Kaiser was very quick to say that was the most important thing he wanted to bring over in his first year of taking the program.
    “It’s about getting your people in here and having new coaches added in with the old staff,” Kaiser said. “That will all be dealt with after Christmas as we go through the transition process.”
    The first step of that transition process — before any new assistants are hired — is Kaiser himself taking over the strength and condition program at the high school. Kaiser’s background is in weight training and he’s taken pride in it every step of his coaching career.
    However with Kaiser you can’t have weight training without the intensity attached to it. The two
pair together like salt and pepper or peanut butter and jelly.
    “The biggest thing is the intensity level and you’ll hear me over everybody,” Kaiser said. “I’m loud and I enjoy being loud to the point where it exhausts me. I’m a firm believer that the team takes on the personality of the coach.”
    When you look at Kaiser he’s a man who looks like the definition of intensity. He stands wellover six-foot-four and have the shaved head of a Marine Drill sergeant. His low baritone voicemakes for one that would project loudly over a crowd on Friday nights.
    The players at Statesboro know it already to from a first impression. Starting quarterback DavisWiggins has known Kaiser for a long time through his father and knows what his teammates are in for.
    “He’s going to get things in shape around here, literally,” Wiggins said. “I know I’m looking forward to what we’ll be doing this winter and in the spring.”
    Statesboro’s players will be getting familiar with mat drills this winter, a series of drills that involve footwork, conditioning and endurance training. While this seems like something most football programs would do in the winter, many players will admit this hasn’t been the case for Statesboro in recent years.
    “Things haven’t been as strict around here,” Wiggins said. “We’re excited to see what coach has in store for us.”
    Though when asked Kaiser said he’d never speak bad about the previous regime and what they did in the offseason. All he’s focused on his what he and his future staff will do this year at Statesboro.
    He also knows that his style might not come off so pleasant at first with his players. As a matter of fact, it just might scare some of them.
    “There will be days they walk off the practice field saying ‘Man coach doesn’t like me’, but we need to make sure they never actually feel that way,” Kaiser said.
    Kaiser made sure to say no matter how intense he or anyone on his staff gets, it was paramount the players knew he was doing it out of a sort of “tough love” only a coach can give.
    “I tell them when you step across that white line you leave your feelings in that locker room. We do this to get better,” Kaiser said. “They’ll get discipline when they need it and I’ll love them when they come through. The main objective is to get the wins back, but we also want to understand SHS is a place where they can always come home.”
    Kaiser said that intense mindset will carry out onto the field. He wants a physical football team that will wear down opponents over the course of a game — an identity in essence, something Statesboro has lacked since their last winning season in 2013.
    “Developing an identity is key, although all depends on your personnel,” Kaiser said. “Our identity will be physical football. Physical is a state of mind. The objective is when you get to the fourth quarter, the opponent will be pounded into submission.”
    As for specific schemes, Kaiser didn’t shed any light on what formations and plays Statesboro will run in 2017. However for those who are curious, Kaiser said he’ll know what kind of team he’ll have before spring practice.
    “We we start doing mat drills in the winter we’ll see who has the footwork, the speed, the power and the desire,” Kaiser said.
    Spring practice — new for Georgia high schools in 2016 — can occur for ten days with a game on the tenth game. It can happen for any period in between Feb. 1 and the end of the school year, which for Statesboro is May 26.
    For Statesboro those practices will be spaced over the course of 13 days from May 3 to May 19, with the spring game — if it occurs —  to be played on the 19.
    Kaiser said the descision on the spring game will come at a later, unamed date.