How new coach DeMarcus Simons has prepared to lead Great Falls football into 2020
During a Keenan High School football practice several years ago, DeMarcus Simons thought he was in trouble with his boss.
It was around 2013, Simons said — a few years before he’d become Keenan’s offensive coordinator and a handful more years before he’d get his chance to become head football coach at Great Falls High School.
In his day job, Simons was an independent contractor, installing satellite television equipment into homes in the Columbia-area. But in the afternoons, he was on the football field. He loved it there. He was young, fresh out of Benedict College, where he got a degree in communications and played quarterback for the school’s team after being a star at Ridge View High School. He was loud, he said. Energetic. The kind of coach kids tend to gravitate toward.
But on that practice day several years ago, Keenan’s head coach and Simons’ mentor, Mitch Moton, used words no former athlete ever wants to hear directed at them.
“He told me he wanted to see me after practice,” Simons told The Herald on Monday afternoon, shaking his head and laughing under a mask with the Great Falls Red Devils emblem on it. “And I’m thinking I’m in trouble. I’m like, ‘Ah man.’ He sat me down. I’m nervous. He’s playing hardball, too. Straight-faced. No-nonsense-faced. I’m like, ‘Dang, what did I do?’”
But Simons, now 33, wasn’t in trouble. Instead, he was about to hear what he’d later call the “greatest advice” he ever received before becoming a coach.
“He says, ‘You know what son?’” Simons recounted. “‘I see how you coach out here. You love it. … But if you want to be taken seriously as a football coach, you gotta get certified as a teacher.’”
That meeting, Simons said, prompted the young coach to get a master’s degree in special education. It got him in the classroom as a teacher. And, in retrospect, it was an early step on his way to being announced as head coach of the Red Devils in May.
“You know, the first thing I would say is he was patient,” Great Falls athletic director and assistant football coach Garrett Knight said of hiring Simons this spring. “I think it took 67 days from the time we recommended him to the time that he actually got the job (as football coach), you know, for us to say something publicly.”
Added Knight: “He stays positive and brings a good attitude to work every single day.”
Simons’ first offseason with Great Falls
It’s fair to say that the 2020 season wasn’t an ideal start to Simons’ tenure.
Coronavirus concerns meant he couldn’t meet his players face-to-face until June 22. And he also had to face a lot of the organizational challenges of running a program during the pandemic, including sometimes taking temperatures and screening the players himself for some summer workouts.
“He’s had to experience some things in his first rodeo that most head football coaches have never had to worry about,” Knight said.
The new coach didn’t sit on his proverbial hands, though.
Simons said it was important to him to learn the history of the town he’d be working in. He and Knight — who also started at Great Falls less than a year ago — canvassed several local businesses. The two of them brought old football jerseys into restaurants for the owners to hang up as decoration, and the Great Falls townspeople in return would pay Knight and Simons in knowledge of Great Falls’ athletic past. In memories. In stories about this 2,000-person town.
“They’ll tell you about old teams, the players who came through there,” Simons said. The coach would tell them about the players on his team, and they’d respond with stories about that players’ father and uncles, back when those older generations used to play Great Falls football, too.
“We’d just sit down and talk regularly, and you’d learn so much.”
2020 Great Falls football team
By all indications, Simons will have a pretty good team to coach.
Thirty players were in pads on Great Falls’ practice on Monday, an increase from last year. And they’re not just bodies — the team has size.
The offense will be led by senior skill position player Tommy Seagle, who’ll see time at quarterback; senior Kaleb Funderburk, a skill position player who can also play quarterback; junior Will Manning (6-6, 200 pounds per MaxPreps); junior Xavier Brown at wide receiver; junior running back Xavier “Fox” Moore, who also won a state championship in basketball last year; Elijah Simpson at fullback; and others.
Many Great Falls players will play on both sides of the ball, but Simons pointed out two players who’ll likely make an immediate impact on defense: senior defensive end/outside linebacker Scott Blackmon (6-2, 200 pounds per MaxPreps) and senior defensive tackle KJ Abrams (6-2, 270 pounds per MaxPreps).
Simons on Abrams: “He’s an athlete. I don’t wanna just say he’s a big man. He’s an athlete. That guy can move, man.”
Simons on Blackmon: “Just remember that name. Put a star by that name. That’s all I’m gonna tell you. Just put a star by that name.”
Simons said the team has attacked the offseason with “urgency.” Great Falls defeated 1A counterpart Whitmire in its scrimmage this past weekend, something the team couldn’t do in the 2019 regular season.
“This is important,” Simons said. “With all this COVID-19, and all this crazy stuff that’s going on with the world, we don’t know if we’ll be able to play football tomorrow. So I take every day as, ‘This could be our last day out here, and let’s play with a sense of urgency. Let’s make every day count because tomorrow, they might pull the plug.’”
Added Simons: “I knew this was my love and passion, and I wanted to be around young people. And if I can impact the young, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.”
2020 Red Devils schedule
Great Falls begins its season against Lamar on Friday night. All games kick off at 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 25: Lamar (home)
Oct. 2: CA Johnson (away)
Oct. 9: Lewisville (away)
Oct. 16: McBee (home)
Oct. 23: Bamberg-Ehrhardt (home)
Oct. 30: Greenwood Academy (home)
Nov. 6: North Central (away)
Editor’s note: This story is one of 15 high school football previews The Herald has run prior to the first game of the regular season on Sept. 25. For all the stories, visit the “High School Football” webpage at heraldonline.com.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 9:03 AM.
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