The Portal Panther football team caught the eye of many high school football fans over the past two years. Head coach Jason McEachin saw his team struggle to a winless season in 2021, and then finally started seeing the fruits of his and the team’s labor with a 4-6 record in 2022.
This year the Panthers took the next step going 8-4, taking the region championship and winning their first playoff game in nearly 20 years.
Earlier this month Georgia High School Football Daily recognized the impressive turnaround by the Panthers as McEachin was presented the Hudl Award for the coach of the most improved winning team in Class-A Division II for the 2023 season.
“It is great for our kids and coaches to be recognized on a state level for how we have turned things around here,” McEachin said. “I was thinking we may have been able to get it last year, but we kind of fell off at the end of the season. You have to have a winning record and be significantly better than the year before and we are just proud to be recognized for the great effort of our team.”
McEachin had belief when he took over the program in 2021 that he could build a winning program at Portal and he attributes much of the success to the players believing as well.
“The biggest thing was the players just buying in from the top to the bottom,” McEachin said. “The players, the coaching staff and the community all showed support. We stated laying down the foundation for what it looked like to be successful. We showed them what we expected as far as how to practice, the effort in the weight room, and everyone bought in. Trusting in the process is a bit of a cliché’ but they did it.”
Athletic director Justin Chester had confidence McEachin could be successful and is proud of his accomplishment.
“Coach McEachin has done a great job making football fun in Portal,” Chester said. “He continually shows appreciation to players and families for being involved in the program. He has embraced the challenge of Portal facilitating middle and high school students. The excitement about playing football has led to our varsity teams playing with relentless effort to be successful. Dr. Blackmar and I are very proud of the "Most Improved Football Program" award and we are also thankful for the community support the last couple of years.”
The Panthers lose some key seniors including three who signed college scholarships, but McEachin has confidence that what they have built will continue despite losing important players from last season’s team.
“I still feel very excited about the future,” McEachin said. “We do lose some key players, but the challenge for the returning players is not having one person fill the shoes but rather the whole group stepping up. We don’t need one guy to be Amir Jackson and one to be Elijah Coleman, we need two or three to help fill in the gaps. I do believe there is a talented group here that can come together and help us be competitive here for a long time.”
