COVINGTON, Ga. — For Eastside assistant football coach Frankey Iverson, a move from Covington was a move for gaining experience. 

After being aboard a football team that successfully made the playoffs, then heading a state championship track team, Iverson began to think about his future, and that’s when Grayson High School in Loganville began calling. 

“Really it was just an offer,” he said. “In sitting down and talking with coach Hoff, I felt that everybody else on this coaching staff had been to another school, and I hadn’t.”

After starting his coaching career at West Georgia, Iverson quickly moved to Eastside, where he began assisting in coaching, a job that he held for nearly 13 years before making the move to Grayson. 

That experience was key in giving him a new perspective on how different teams are coached and how they prepare for the season, especially from a school that is considered one of the top teams in the state each year — a claim validated with a state championship and national ranking in 2016.

“When you get the opportunity to coach at a place like Grayson, you learn to get that outside feeling of what it’s supposed to be like, but when I got there, I was surprised at how hard the kids worked,” he said.

“The kids worked their tails off, and they deserve everything they get because they earn it, and that was surprising to me.”

Seeing how much work the Rams put in each practice was motivating to Iverson as he made his way back to Covington and on to the Eagles practice field, a move he says feels great.

“It’s like riding a bike,” he said. “Even when you’ve been out for a couple of years, when you jump back on it, it’s like you’ve never been off of it.” 

Now that Iverson is back with new perspectives and experiences, he’s ready to help push the Eagles to new heights in 2018. 

“I hope to instill here that you can’t take a day off, you can’t take a play off, and you can’t take a second off,” he said. “We’re just trying to push that right now until they understand it. It’s early, but hopefully that’ll start to build and progress through the summer.”

Iverson helps bring that level of grind to the team in the way he carries himself on the field. Some say he’s Eastside’s “hype man” while many see clearly that his level of energy stands out among opposing coaches.

Either way, the passion and energy Iverson brings back to the staff is extremely beneficial for a young Eagles team that is looking to reestablish themselves with a handful of new faces trying to plug in voids left by players like quarterback Brayden Harper and college-bound linemen LaMarius Benson and Spurgeon Gaither. 

If the players can mimic the passion Iverson has brought back with him, they are primed for another great season. 

“I’m just excited,” he said with a laugh. “I’m excited about football. I’m passionate about this sport, I’ve always been passionate about this sport, especially growing up and playing it myself. I try to show how excited I am, so they can be excited.