COLUMN: Start of season brings some closure for Boyd, Lamar

There were plenty of people who felt bad for Charlie Poole a few months ago when he lost his job as Lamar’s football coach.

The man who took Poole’s place — J.R. Boyd — didn’t publicly garner nearly as much sympathy.

Maybe they didn’t know how tough a time Boyd was having with it as well.

To refresh memories, Poole was fired in early March despite his 30-9 record, 15-0 region mark and a pair of trips to Class A lower state title games in three seasons.

Boyd, of course, was Lamar’s coach for 12 years and took the Silver Foxes to three state titles before leaving for Laurens after the 2004 season, opening the door for Poole to step in at Lamar.

But, as Boyd put it, he and some of the Laurens folks didn’t see eye-to-eye on how the program should be run, and he left after two seasons only to come back to Lamar as an assistant in 2007.

So naturally, when Poole was fired and Boyd was hired a few days later, the conspiracy theorists certainly had plenty of ammunition.

They claimed that Boyd’s re-hiring had been a foregone conclusion, that Lamar officials saw too good of an opportunity to get back the coach who had brought such prestige to the football program and shoved Poole out the door against his wishes.

If that was the case, Boyd said he wasn’t in on it and had, in fact, asked that the process be handled differently.

“I won’t say who, but somebody came to me and asked me about the (coaching) position,” Boyd said. “I told them I’m not here to force Charlie out. If the job does come open, I would apply for it. I’m not saying get rid of Charlie. I’m saying open it up to anyone and I’ll apply for it.

“The process wasn’t handled that way. It was sort of forced back on me and I had to make a decision.”

Some Poole supporters went so far as to suggest Boyd shouldn’t have taken the position if he truly cared what happened to Poole, a friend of many years.

While such a gesture would have been magnanimous to the point of overkill on Boyd’s part, it certainly wasn’t practical.

Boyd wanted to be a head coach again, he was in a place where he had already enjoyed overflowing success and he was offered the job.

Honestly, what would you have done?

“It was just a professional decision,” Boyd said. “And it was that simple. I was offered the job. You have to look at it as what’s in the best interest of your family.”

Boyd compared it to a situation in professional sports where an athlete might get traded or released under less-than-ideal circumstances.

“You might not be happy with the decision, but you’re not going to quit playing,” Boyd said.

The transition certainly hasn’t been seamless. Boyd said there has been some attrition along the way. He said he doesn’t know for sure whether those players left because they were upset with the coaching change or if they just didn’t like Boyd’s tough way of running things.

“We’re doing some things different,” he said.

And don’t think Boyd doesn’t have any sympathy for Poole, now a football assistant and boys track coach at Darlington.

While Poole will serve as the Falcons’ defensive coordinator on Friday nights, his son, Reece, will play his senior season at Lamar.

“He’s put in the predicament now that he doesn’t get to see his son play,” Boyd said. “It’s tough on his family, too.

“Hopefully, they’ll have a great season and he’ll do well there. He’s a good coach and I have a lot of admiration for Charlie Poole.”

It’s hard not to. Poole certainly had a right to gripe throughout the ordeal, but steadfastly refused to do so.

Maybe it’s because he realizes what hopefully everyone realizes by now.

Silver Fox football is itself bigger than any controversy, whether you like the fact that Boyd is the coach, or whether you don’t.

It’s about the players most of all. And it’s about a community — just like so many others across the country — that comes together on Friday nights because those players unite for a common purpose, to win a football game.

“I know the general feeling in public,” Boyd said, “is ‘Yeah, let’s move on. The season’s here.’”

And the game is all that matters.