Westside’s Defensive Coordinator Talks Tradition of Football Program, Getting to The Next Level

Published in

The Macon Report High School Sports Blog (Online Magazine)

4 min readJan 27, 2016

Above; Defensive Coordinator, Clint Kent, give instructions during defensive drills

Former Seminoles football standout, Clint Kent, is coming off of his second season as defensive coach at Westside High School — his alma mater. In 2014, he served as the defensive backs coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2015. During his first season as defensive coordinator, the Seminoles reached the elite 8 and possessed one of the best defenses in the state. Kent is a 2002 graduate of Westside and is the school’s all time interceptions leader. Post high school graduation he enjoyed a successful playing career on both the collegiate and professional levels.

In His Words:

Kent Talks Tradition of Westside’s Football Program, Getting Program to The Next Level and More…

It has been an honor to come back and coach at my alma mater. I thank Coach Sheddrick “Spoon” Risper for giving me this opportunity. I would not want to be any other place coaching high school football. My heart bleeds garnet and gold! I am blessed to be able to come back and spread my knowledge of football to our players, but most importantly teach them how to be men!

In our 19 years of existence we have had over one-hundred (100)players go on to play football at the collegiate level. Likewise, over the past six seasons since Coach Risper has taken over as head coach, over forty (40) of our players have signed football scholarships. Westside is currently second in classification AAA (3A) with eighteen (18) former players actively playing on collegiate football rosters.

*Notable: Currently former Westside standout, Kareem Jackson , plays for the Houston Texans.

We take pride in winning and being one of the best football programs in the state of Georgia. We have never lost to a school in our city — Macon,Ga — since our establishment in 1997 (30–0 all time). Westside has enjoyed some very good seasons and some decent playoffs success over the years; however, we are ready to take that next step and win a state title. With Coach Risper’s great leadership along with our great student athletes, I believe we are really close to getting it done.

Kent’s Message to All Student Athletes

I am a firm believer in hard work paying off. I remember when myself and Kareem Jackson (Houston Texans) would workout three times a day. There were times we would go to the gym at midnight and have workout sessions only to wake up early the following morning and repeat the process. We did not become professional athletes by accident — WE WORKED HARD!

“TO BE GREAT YOU HAVE TO PUT THE WORK IN AND THERE’S NO SHORT CUTTING THAT”

PLAYER PROFILE:

High School Career

Westside-Macon High School: 1998–2002

Team Captain — 2002
Team MVP — 2002
Career Interceptions leader
1st team All-State — 2002
1st Team All-Middle Georgia — 2x selection
City (Macon) Player of the Year — 2002
Reached Final Four (State Semis: Georgia Dome) football— 2001
Reached Elite Eight (State Quarterfinals )football— 2002

*Noteworthy: Only player in school history to be selected All-State in two sports — football & basketball (Reached Final four — state semis — basketball)