The Interview

Christopher Saul

With me today is Niceville High School’s head football coach, Grant Thompson, just off an elite eight-win here in Niceville last week against a Tallahassee Lincoln team that a month ago took you right down to the wire so it must have been really wonderful to take a big win away before you guys head to your next game this week against Lakeland right.

Coach Grant Thompson

Yeah, man, that was huge, a huge win and a huge game coming up.

Christopher Saul

Yeah, and you were talking to your team this Friday, this past Friday night, just about how you guys are a Final Four team. You guys have always been a Final Four team, as you told them. What’s going through your mind as you prepare for this other Final Four team in the Lakeland Dreadnaughts?

Coach Grant Thompson

Man, I’ve been very fortunate to play in five of these games and be part of some great teams here at Niceville. I’ve got an experienced coaching staff, and we’ve got a really good team led by some really strong seniors. And we are all working furiously to prepare for this Lakeland Dreadnaught team. They’re very good, very talented, historical program, won the last two state titles.

And last year won big versus a good Venice team. So we’re all just furiously trying to get ready.

Christopher Saul

As you guys prepare for this game and you guys get ready for the logistical challenge of getting all the way down to Lakeland, what are you telling your guys about what is essentially, you know, it’s an away game that all the chips are on the table, man.

Coach Grant Thompson

Yeah, so just a lot goes into nice going on the road and just getting ready to make it as organized as possible. Trying to talk to guys down in that area that have played there. Nobody’s ever played there before that I know and we’ve never played there. They played a big game here in 05. A lot of people still talk about it. It’s getting ready for a hostile environment. They’ve got a really strong environment. I think similar to ours, passionate fan base. We’re just trying to.

you dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s we can to give our boys the best chance they can to play well.

Christopher Saul

On the offensive side of the ball, you guys have had plenty of guys in the backfield that are making plays. Everybody from J.J. Lewis to Connor Matthews, know, King of my fortune. What is it like to have so many different assets that you can use to attack attack a defense?

Coach Grant Thompson

Yeah, so I get better and worse as a coach each year. I’m kind of joking, but I’m a lot better coach when we have guys like that. And we’ve got so many guys contribute and they’ve all bought into this selfless mentality, which is incredibly unique in 2024 when there’s nothing but distractions and NILs and offers and all this. And somewhere about halfway through the season, our guys just said, you know what, coach, to heck with it. We’re going to win whatever we got to do.

In each game, we kind of have a different guy step up. had Landon Isbell have big games, Robert Stith, Connor Matthews, JJ Lewis, Kane LaFortune. We’ve had a bunch of guys step up and make plays. Max Roach has made plays. We got Jay Galindo healthy. We got a big, strong offensive line. Maddox Hales is over there playing. He’s our leader. So it’s just really fun as a coach. We got a bunch of guys that can make plays.

Christopher Saul

Talking a little bit about your staff that you bring to the table, how are you relying on them as you guys move into this? there’s only great teams left. How do you rely on your guys on the staff level to make stuff happen?

Coach Grant Thompson

Yep. So, here at Niceville, I learned from one of the best in Coach Hicks and the way that he did it and the way he built a staff and we can have an advantage here. Charlie Morello, Marcus Chambers allow us to have a big staff and we’ve got a bunch of guys on campus that are helping and they’re just really good coaches, different ages, different experience, different levels of expertise. And you just, when I got hired here six years ago,

I made that one of my priorities was to have the best staff we could and to try to do everything I could to make their lives better because God, they put a ton of work in. So I mean, our staff is a huge part of our success and is gonna be a huge part Friday whether we have success or not.

Christopher Saul

Just looking at all the players that you have, mean, 80, it feels like 80 plus guys when you’re back and forth on the sideline, at least to me. They’ve been at this since, what, July? What is their mentality as they’re into their six month of work for this season?

Coach Grant Thompson

special team, special people, strong leaders, just a bunch of really, really strong leaders from good families that don’t know anything but winning. And that’s kind of the biggest difference from, like you say, we’ve actually go year round here anymore. There’s no July. We get you get going. It’s basically been about a year. And so a lot of it comes down to like, are they still motivated? Do they still want to put their bodies through this? Are they still mentally good and not fatigued?

And each team kind of develops a different personality and this team is still feisty. They’re still fighting. They’re still trying to get better. And I think that’s the difference in a playoff run when you sometimes, know, the teams we’ve had to go and the teams that maybe don’t make it as far. And this is just a really special bunch, a bunch of guys that played a lot. We’ve got a bunch of three-year starters here. That’s unique for a nice full team. You know, I usually don’t have that. We just got some experienced guys that are hungry and ready to go play.

Christopher Saul

Alright, those are all the questions I have, but is there anything that you want the town to know about this game that you guys are playing on Friday or anything after that?

Coach Grant Thompson

I think two kind of quick things, we didn’t hit on the defense how good they’re playing. They have been dominant the last two games and they will be instrumental in our success. Coach Martin leads them, and he does a tremendous job. And then the second thing, as always any chance I can get to tell the community how much we all appreciate them, what you’re doing, when the people come out, every aspect of what we do at Niceville is incredible. The band, the cheerleaders, the student section, the dance team, our principals, our teachers.

the fans, the season ticket supporters, I mean, I can go on and on and on, but like everything we do here is first class. And I’m not sure if our fans, I hope they know like how much better that makes us, right? And how much better that makes our team, and that gives us an advantage.

Christopher Saul

Right on. Well, hey, Coach Grant Thompson is off to play the Lakeland Dreadnaughts, by the way, great, great mascot name in Lakeland. So good for them. But other than that, man, we’re excited to see how you guys do. We’ll be rooting for you back here and go get them.

Coach Grant Thompson

Thanks. Go Eagles.