FORMER PLAYERS IN THEIR OWN WORDS SPEAKING ABOUT MATT TURNER

C.J. Taylor at Vanderbilt (photo provided) C.J. at Blackman 2020 (photo Brad Durham)

C.J. Taylor…

Matt Turner is the greatest Warren County football coach. When you haven’t won in 43 years, I think there is a new greatest coach of all-time.

Maybe they just need to look internal before looking for a new coach. Starts at the top of the food chain AD, Principal. All that. They need to figure themselves out first. Take a long stare in the mirror, and look internally.

Regarding the possibility of transferring to another high school…I was transferring to Oakland. Coach Sullens and Coach Turner talked me out of it.

Doug Wells pregame 2020. The infamous, Syrup Squad, created by Doug Wells. Pictured are Braden Bottoms, Doug Wells and Kaden Jordan. (photos Brad Durham)

Doug Wells…

Coach Turner played a huge role in my life. He was a father figure, not just to me, but to several other guys as well. He has done so much for me — I will never be able to repay him. No one cares more about the well-being of Warren County football than that man.

Also, at times during our historical season in 2020, I didn’t always understand why Coach Turner would have us do certain things…like running 40 40’s every Monday or perfecting every play in our play book, but I do now. Looking back, he made us do everything right, down to the minute details. Because he didn’t want us to settle to be mediocre. I learned more about life during my time playing for him than football. He taught us how to love and how to be good men. Everyone has an opinion on Matt Turner and that’s fine. But one thing you can’t argue about is his dedication to Pioneer football and his dedication to changing young men’s lives.

Aiden Cummings, WCHS Football Weight Room 2020 (photo Brad Durham). Aiden Cummings (photo provided)

Aiden Cummings…

“I am because we are” — do I know if that was something he made? No, but it was something he made us believe and it can describe how it felt playing under him. If one went, we all went. When the team is together and strong, we were unstoppable. Not just one player made the team. We all made the team.

I can agree with that not many coaches come in and try building relationships with as many players as he did. With that came trust, and we trusted him. And that got us those results, along with CJ having the performance he did, along with the o-line and the Holders. There are 5 or more players I could name as well. But considering we had put together some key players we had missed since middle school, I feel we would have still have been successful. Coach Turner was a former player, and as a coach, he understood us. On top of that he was local. He wanted it just as bad as us. He’d literally be out there with his hand in the dirt practicing. Head coaches don’t do that now. They just want to look good.

As for me playing football at Warren County that year, I had a debate about if I should play. I did play. But coming off the bad seasons we had, it was a real gut check time. Like a calling to reality. Just because we didn’t win this amount of games doesn’t mean we can’t work and get the team to the standard that we wanted to reach.

I do recall me wanting to quit with coach Turner as the coach but I don’t think he was the head coach. It had nothing to do with him, but after talking with him, he’d give you no other reason but to want to stay. He’d put that spark in you if you didn’t think you had it before.

Just ask about the pregame and halftime speeches. That man was bleeding Warren County, and I’m gonna say something extra for me. It’s sickening when you see a community turn against a coach that gave his all to the community. He had relationships with the players well enough to know how to coach them, but we also pushed for the relationships like that.