COLUMN: No matter the coach, all Gators do is win

One thing we know about the powers in charge of Lake View High School athletics.

As the saying goes, their mamas didn’t raise no fools.

When longtime football coach Jewell McLaurin decided a few months ago to relinquish his head coaching duties to concentrate on those of the athletic director, some figured it would have at least a little bit of an adverse effect.

That hardly has been the case.

The Wild Gators are 6-1 heading into tonight’s game at Creek Bridge, their only loss coming to Class 2A Dillon, which is bigger and deeper.
How?
It’s very simple logic, really.

If McLaurin wasn’t going to be the guy in charge, Lake View administrators figured by hiring a junior version of McLaurin in Daryl King, they couldn’t go wrong.

After all, King played for McLaurin in the early 1990s.

“How coach Mac did things is how I understand football to be played,” King said. “It’s the only way I really know how to do things.”

And, of course, McLaurin didn’t stray far.

Not only is he the athletic director, he’s also still on the football field.

While he might not be the proverbial “guy in charge,” he’s still running the Wild Gator offense, while King sees to the well being of the defense.

Ostensibly, it sets up for a somewhat strange and possibly uneasy situation — student in charge of mentor.

But that’s a problem only at places where personal ambition gets in the way of the greater good.

At Lake View, the transition has been seamless.

“There are no egos involved at all here,” King said. “Everybody knows they have a job to do, and that’s to put the best team on the field and give it every opportunity to win.”

And that philosophy is paying big dividends for the Wild Gators.

“It’s working so far,” McLaurin said. “Coach King knows how Lake View is and what we can and can’t do here.”

And McLaurin has been more than willing to do whatever he’s been asked, like when King asked that he stay on as offensive coordinator.

McLaurin said he was happy to do so. And it didn’t take him long to adjust to having fewer responsibilities.

“I like it, to be honest with you,” McLaurin said. “You know when you’ve done it long enough. But I still like helping out.”

McLaurin said he has offered King only minimal advice, and most of that doesn’t have anything to do with play calling.

“It might be that we have a problem of some sort and I’ll say, ‘We had this problem years ago and this is how we handled it,’” McLaurin said. “He doesn’t need any advice from me when it comes to football. He knows his football.”

Sure seems that way. Lake View is 3-0 where it counts — in Region 8-A — having last week beaten one of the teams that figured to challenge the Gators the most, Carvers Bay.

After tonight’s game at Creek Bridge, the Gators travel to Latta next week. They’re both games the Gators should win, which could set up a potential region championship showdown against Hemingway the final week of the regular season, should the Tigers continue to win.

And really, is anyone surprised?

The only thing “new” about Lake View is the name of the guy they call the coach.

If you haven’t seen a Lake View football game in the last 10 years and happened to wander over to Creek Bridge tonight, you’d think you hadn’t missed anything.

And you’d be right.

You would immediately recognize that wishbone formation and a hard-hitting defense that have been in place as long as most can remember.

“If you’ve been successful,” McLaurin said, “you probably want to keep going and doing the same thing you’ve been doing.”

Words to live by.

Words to win by.

— E-mail assistant sports editor Mark Haselden at mhaselden@florencenews.com