HHF /GID Interview with Danville Head Coach Jayme Comer

[Guest DT]

HHF Interview with Danville Head Coach Jayme Comer

 

The Warriors made it all the way to the 3A title game in 2020, grabbing a Sagamore title along the way. Lots of experienced players return as Danville saddles up and preps to make another run deep into November.

 

 

Question 1

It's been a long hot summer, and you, your staff and your kids are hopefully getting some much needed rest before the regular season begins. Overall, how were summer drills for your team, what areas of real strength did you uncover, and what are some things you and staff need to work on and develop before season opening kickoff?

 

Answer 1:

It was an outstanding Summer for our Danville Football program! Having the opportunity to spend the whole month of June & July together was a luxury that we did not have prior to the 2020 season. I am extremely proud of all of our players, coaches, and support staff for the work and commitment that they invested in our program.

 

Our philosophy on our Summer training is to be as efficient with our players and coaches time as possible, I try very hard to make sure that we are not going overboard with our schedule and that when players and coaches come to athletic development training or to practice that they are excited and it still feels fresh. Football has a very long season and our goal is always to play late into November, so it is important not to burn our kids and coaches out in the Summer. This also helps with our multiple sports, we have a large number of kids that play at least 2 and some even 3 sports, for this to be possible we have to be aware of how valuable their time is and be as efficient as we can with the time that we have.

 

With that being said our kid's buy-in to our Summer training has been outstanding, over the course of 21 training opportunities the Summer, we had 63 players who attend at least 18/21 training sessions, with 29 athletes who had 100% attendance to all training opportunities. This is the sort of buy-in and commitment that we expect for our athletes, and I am extremely thankful that our parents and kids see the importance of the weight room and our athletic development training.

 

We also had the opportunity to scrimmage against some great competition in South Putnam, Martinsville, and West Lafayette. Those scrimmage opportunities in the Summer are extremely important for identifying areas to improve and putting our kids in game-like situations. We were very happy with our effort and the way that our kids have taken the coaching and improved from those scrimmage opportunities.

 

One of the things that I am most excited about is the growth within our program, from a K-12th grade level. At the High School, we will have over 90+ athletes playing football and will have a full Varsity, JV, & Freshman Team. This will be the 1st time in over 15 years that Danville has had a freshman team.

 

Our middle school numbers are outstanding, and we have an 8th-grade group that went undefeated and gave up 1 TD last season.

 

Finally, we have over 170+ kids playing for our youth program, which is an all-time high. 168 of those kids attend our youth camp this Summer and continued to improve as Warrior football players.

 

Question 2

Coach, tell us a little about your personal background. What is your hometown, where did you go to school and what is your playing background? How and when did you decide to get into coaching and what circumstances came about to bring you to Danville?

 

Answer 2:

 

I have been extremely lucky to grow up within a family of educators and coaches, some of my best childhood memories are from my time serving as a ball boy on the sidelines at Brownsburg football games. I am a 2008 graduate of Brownsburg High School. My dad (Brett Comer) was an assistant football coach at Brownsburg from the early 90's until he took over as Head Coach at Brownsburg prior to the 2006 season. I had the unique opportunity to play for my dad in high school, first as my defensive coordinator during the 05 seasons, and then as my Head Coach during the 06 and 07 seasons.

 

During my time at Brownsburg, my Aunt was the Head Girls Basketball coach and my Mom was her assistant coach, all while my Dad was the Head Football Coach, so the odds that I would end up as a coach were pretty high!

 

My dad has been and will always be my biggest influence in the game of football, I was able to have a front seat view from the time he took control of the Brownsburg program, building it from a 3 win team, to a team that won the most recent Bulldog post-season championship with the 2009 Sectional Championship, where they then pushed a Warren Central team to the brink in the 09 Regional Final.

 

After graduating in 2008, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play Division 1 football at Illinois State University, where I spent 3 seasons playing under Head Coaches Denver Johnson and Brock Spack. After the 2010 season, I made one of the best decisions I could have made and transferred to the University of Indianapolis where I had the great opportunity to play for Bob Bartolomeo as my Head Coach and Chris Keevers as my LB position coach. Both of those men have had lasting impacts on my life within the game of football.

 

After graduation, I spent a semester as a strength and conditioning coach in Fort Worth at TCU, and during that time Justin Pelley was hired as the Head Coach at Western Boone. Coach Pelley had been my dad's OC at Brownsburg for 7 years prior. He asked me to join him at Western Boone as the strength & conditioning coach and football coach. From Fall 2012-Spring 2020 I served in a number of different roles at Western Boone from S&C coach, position coach, Head Track Coach, and finally as OC during the 18/19 State Title teams.

 

After the 2019 season, I was ready for the challenge of becoming a Head Coach, and one of the best jobs in the state opened with Danville. I jumped at the opportunity and was fortunate to be given the opportunity to lead the Warriors.

 

Question 3

The 2020 season, your first at Danville, was a huge success for the program. Your team went undefeated in the Sagamore, blew through the first 3 rounds of the state tournament, and then ran into the Chatard buzzsaw while losing 42-14 in the 3A state championship game. Did you have a sense of what you had on hand going into last year, did the level of success surprise you and your staff, and what were some of the key strengths you realized last season that will carry over to the 2021 season for the Warriors?

 

Answer 3:

 

Coming into the season we knew that we had the opportunity to have a strong season. We had a Senior class full of great players, 7 that ended up signing to play somewhere in college. As well as a Junior class that had great players at key positions. With COVID and the uncertainty to begin the year, we lost our Week 2 and 3 games, we really did not know how long we would have the opportunity to play. That thought process helped our kids and coaches to really appreciate each chance that we had to practice and compete, we cherished spending the time together when we could and we knew that we had to do everything that we could to "Protect the Program" as we say around Danville.

 

Our expectation within our program is to compete for conference titles and to do all that we can to push deep into November each year, the 2020 season was a great opportunity for our kids, our school community, and our town to help raise the standard for Danville football. I am extremely thankful to the Class of 2021 and the 18 Seniors that bought in completely to our new standard for our program and were able to lead us to Lucas Oil.

 

The 2020 season was a great example of what football means to a community, I am extremely grateful and proud to be a part of the Danville Community. The town rallied around our team and supported us every step of the way. As a program, we are working every day to make the people around us proud of what we do on and off the field of play.

 

Question 4

You had an opportunity to get a good look at the Sagamore last year, top to bottom. The league plays in the shadows of the big Indy conferences but has had great postseason representation over the years. What is your assessment of the conference in general, were you surprised by anything that you saw in league play last year, and who are the top programs you expect to compete with this season as you look to defend your conference championship?

 

Answer 4:

This upcoming season will be my 9th year of coaching high school football, and my 9th year coaching for a program within the Sagamore Conference. The thing that can always be said about the Sagamore is that there will be outstanding coaching across the board, and the kids will be hard-nosed kids that compete like heck. Our conference is continuing to develop outstanding facilities across the board, and the strength and conditioning portions of each school continue to develop and improve. As that happens the level of play will rise with it, and I would expect we will see an increase in post-season success across the board. It is an exciting time across the whole Sagamore Conference.

 

The success of teams within the postseason over the past few years has been outstanding and does nothing but raise the level of play within the conference. WeBo's Seniors have had the opportunity to practice for 45 weeks over the past 3 seasons, I fully expect that they will be ready to roll again this season. Lebanon is becoming a very large school within the conference and continues to have D1 talent within their roster, Tri-West is going to be extremely well-coached and they have a great Senior class that will be motivated to perform this season. Frankfort and the Montgomery County schools continue to improve and I fully expect to have competitive games this upcoming season.

 

While the Sagamore Conference may be a smaller school conference, I can tell you from experience that the game atmosphere at some of these smaller schools is some of the best in the state. Communities rally around their football program and it becomes a part of their identity. Something that you do not always see in the higher enrollment classes.

 

Question 5

Your team put up quite a few points on the board last season. What will be your basic offensive philosophy this year? Will you be making any changes based on returning personnel? And who are some of your key athletes at the skill positions and on the interior line that will be counted on for leadership and production this fall?

 

Answer: 5

 

I am very pleased with how our offensive has progressed and grown over the spring opportunities, summer training, and now into Fall camp. We have been able to get into more detail with our kids and really start to put them in positions where they can best use their individual skill sets. Our offensive philosophy is first and foremost that we have to find a way to be able to run the football, we use a variety of formations and play types to achieve this goal, and we feel that we are starting to really come into our own in establishing our run game. With the way that the game has changed over the years, we have to continue to try to get the ball to our best athletes in space, and we are thrilled with the additions that we have had to our team over the past year with a number of athletes who have formally just played basketball, now coming out to showcase their skills on the football field.

 

It starts with our Senior Quarterback #14 Kale Payne, this will be Kales 3rd year starting, and Kale has an opportunity to go down as the leading passer in school history. He has lead teams to a semi-state and a state championship game appearance, and we fully expect him to be an exceptional leader for this 2021 campaign.

 

Kale will have a number of options to throw the ball to with returning Senior TE #2 Tyler Dostin, who is committed to Kent State. We expect Tyler to be the weapon that will be a huge asset for us this season. A number of others players will contribute at WR with BJ Wuest, Brayton McMahon, Caden Collins, Wyatt Gentry, Andrew Poppa, & Jimmy Greenfield. This is an athletic group that works very hard and has a chance to be good!

 

We will be young to start the year upfront but are lead by our center #64 Kaleb Caudle. Kaleb is a great football player that has been offered by St. Francis, and we fully expect to be a dominant force on the OL. He will be joined by Marshall Clark, Parker McIntrye, Ethan Duke, & Ryan Smith. This group is lead by in my opinion one of the best OL coaches in the state, Scott West. We are blessed to have him as a part of our staff, and I am excited about the continued growth of this group.

 

 

Question 6

Defensively, what is your primary scheme, and who are your key returning athletes this fall?

 

 

Answer 6

On the defensive side of the ball, we are lead by our Defensive Coordinator Jason Thompson, and his staff of Jon Luellen (DBs), Levi Carpenter (DL), & Jordan Galliher (ILBs).

 

We are an attacking 3-4 defense that will line up in a number of different fronts and coverages, trying to find ways to create turnovers and explosive plays for our athletes. . Our core philosophy starts with having the ability to stop the run and then finding ways to create turnovers. If we are able to do both of those things, we feel good about our chances of being successful on a Friday night.

 

Our DL will be a strength this season, #55 Trey Morrell is a 6'4", 260lb force, that in my view is one of the top players in the state. He is an athletic freak, that has added strength during the off-season and I expect a big year by him. #34 Devon Keith is another Senior who is 100% bought into our program and has gained a great deal of strength and speed this off-season, he has a chance to be a force upfront. #49 Evan Lawrence is a sophomore who has joined our program this season, Evan is 6'6" and 225lbs, he had been a basketball-only guy before now, but we are thrilled to have him with us. He has a chance to be a high-level college football player with the class of 2024.

 

#28 Ethan Lathery, #3 Andrew Poppa, #11 Brayton McMahon, #36 Caleb McRoberts are all Seniors who will lead our LBs/DBs this season. All 3 have had 100% attendance at all off-season events and we believe that their best football is ahead of them.

 

I am very thankful to have the group of coaches and players working to make our defense into a true force this season!

 

Question 7

We've discussed the Success Factor with many coaches throughout the state this summer in our interview series. Some are strongly in favor, some have reservations, and a few are strongly against. A bit of a mixed bag. 3A is a class that seems to always be impacted by schools coming and going in and out of the class due to the SF. First, do you feel that the SF has been a positive measure in terms of maintaining competitive balance? And second, what are your personal thoughts on the SF as it relates to your school and the Sagamore Conference in general?

 

Answer 7

The SF has been a great addition for the state of Indiana, it has created new match-ups and given teams that in the past did not have opportunities to play late into November a chance. We are continually trying to find ways to grow the sport, and the best way to do that is to continue to give new teams at least "hope" that they can play late into the playoffs. Having the same sectional year after year is a negative for teams that may be trying to make a breakthrough.

 

The one change that I would make is to instead of a 2-year set cycle, make it a 2-year rolling cycle. If a team accumulates enough points within a 2-year cycle, they would move up a class. This would create changes within sectionals on a year-to-year basis and it would give teams more post-season opportunities. Teams that earn the opportunity to play 15 weeks have more opportunities to practice which should improve their program, and prepare them for a higher class.

 

Question 8

Free time is a rarity for football coaches these days, given all your obligations and the year-round nature of the game as it is played today. What do you like to do when you are away from the game and is it difficult to find the time to balance your responsibilities at work and at home?

 

Answer: 8

 

I hit the lottery when I met my wife (Kristina), she is a former college athlete (volleyball) at UIndy, so she understands the daily tasks of running a program. I am very thankful to have her on my side and have her supporting our football program.

 

We have a year and half year old son (KJ), so any time I am not at school it is spent with him and chasing him around!

 

As a program, we try to create the best family-like atmosphere we can, Kristina and other coaches' families bring treats or will attend team meals. I feel that it is important for our players to see our lives outside of football, and hopefully, they see ways to balance football and family in a positive way.

 

Question 9

Coming into your second season as Head Coach at Danville, what is the identity you are working to establish for your program? Given the great success, you had last year, what are your team goals for the 2021 season, and are your kids feeling any pressure or expectations based on last year's tremendous on-field experience?

 

Answer: 9

 

I have been blessed to be a part of outstanding programs and teams over the years, and the common factor between them all has been the outstanding people within them. As coaches, we try to serve our players to the best of our abilities daily. Pushing them to be the best versions of themselves on and off the field of play, as a program we have 3 main goals that we focus on daily.

 

We expect our players to:

 

1. WIN as Students

2. WIN as People

3. WIN as Athletes

 

They are valued in that order, and we strive to do all that we can to support our players during their journey through high school. We consistently tell them that, "they may never be done with football, but at some point, football will be done with them", so what they do now during their time as players will make all the difference in the future.

 

We fully believe that if our team meets the 3 goals above, that we will find the success that we want on the field on Friday night!

 

Football in the town of Danville is alive and well, we are thrilled with the program we are building, but know that we have a great deal of work ahead! Our players, coaches, and community will be up for the challenge!

 

Go Warriors!

 

 

Thanks Coach Comer. Best of luck to you, your staff and team this fall.

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DT

[southend]

A very down to earth speaker. I can see how well it translates into good vibes with his assistant coaches and players alike.  They should continue to be successful.