Monroe Era Begins At Westbrook Christian
F
By Gerhard Mathangani
rom the age of ten, Shea Monroe
dreamed of being a football coach. He
first fell in love with the game as an
athlete and 18-years later, his childhood
dream came true when Monroe was hired
at Westbrook Christian in December
2015, taking over for longtime coach Tony
Osborne.
After 21 seasons, Osborne retired to
become the director of the Big Oak Girls
Ranch. Osborne’s success with the Warriors proved to be a place where Monroe
knew he could win and provide a great
impact on the lives of young students.
Under Osborne, the Warriors won five
region titles and qualified for the playoffs
twelve times.
“The first thing that appealed to me personally is that it is a Christian school with
a Christian atmosphere. My faith in Jesus
is the most important thing, so I liked the
fit.” Monroe said. “From a football standpoint, this is a place that has had success
before. I thought was a place that could
once again be competitive like it was under
Coach Osborne.”
Before moving to Rainbow City, Monroe
“cut his teeth” as an assistant coach in
Georgia and Alabama. Most recently, he
served three seasons as offensive coordinator at Lincoln High School under
head coach Brad Wallace. Monroe counts
Wallace as one of the mentors he looked
up to on his journey to his current role.
“He holds your feet to the fire and understands how to make everyone better,”
Monroe said. “I love the kids and community at Lincoln. I will be busy with my guys
during the week, but after our games on
Friday nights, I will definitely be checking
the scoreboard to see how they did.”
Another source of inspiration is Mickey
Conn, Monroe’s coach at Grayson High
School in Georgia, which opened in 2000.
Conn is the school’s only coach and built it
into a perennial power and state champion in 2011. He recently took an assistant
88 | 2016 Pigskin Roundup the Magazine
coach position on Dabo Swinney’s staff at
Clemson. Monroe also worked for future
Hall of Fame coach Roger Holmes in
Dublin, GA.
“All those guys showed me what to do.
They were great examples of how to treat
people because you can only be as good as
the people around you.” Monroe said.
Now Monroe faces the challenge of turning the Warriors back into winners. The
last two seasons in Class 3A were tough.
Westbrook Christian finished 3-7 in both
2014 and 2015. In January, they were
told they were moving back to Class 2A.
However they were reclassified into the
very competitive Region 6, with the likes of
Collinsville, Sand Rock, Gaston and Fyffe,
2014 state champion and 2015 runner-up.
“They (AHSAA) didn’t do us any favors”
Monroe said with a laugh. “Physically, it’s
a very tough region. Everyone is going to
line up and run the football and not make
any bones about it. They are going to let
you know ‘this is what we’re going to do’.”
Monroe said the philosophy will be simple
going into 2016. He wants to be able to
stop the run and run the football effectively. Monroe believes that if they can
stay competitive in every game, they will
give themselves the opportunities to make
the plays that will win and from there, the
confidence grows.
“Football is football. In the end, it always
comes down to blocking, tackling and
executing the fundamentals no matter
what scheme you run. Offensively and
defensively we will be multiple but the core
values will remain the same.”
In football, every inch matters on the field,
but also off of it. Monroe said in today’s
sports culture, where there is a lot of pressure to advance to the next level, the level
of attention to the “small stuff ” becomes
very important. His goal is for the culture
of the program reflect that philosophy.
“I tell our guys all the time, there are two
things you can control, your attitude and
your effort. If you have a great attitude and
play with great effort, everything else will
take care of itself.” he said. “It’s all about
being the best in everything we do.”
Monroe understands the program will be
built day-by-day and he wants to make
each day in year one count with his first
group of seniors. Community support is
one of the trademarks at Westbrook Christian and Monroe said he feels that sense of
“family” within the program.
The goals of the team will adjust season to
season, but for now, Monroe can look back
and be proud that he stayed true to his goal
as a ten-year-old with a bright future and
love of the game.