New football at Reinhardt

Two years ago, one of Georgia’s high school football coaching mainstays for three decades, Danny Cronic, took on a new job. At a smaller scale than when Bill Curry took on the responsibility of building Georgia State Panther football, Cronic, who’s led such traditional winning programs like LaGrange High and East Coweta, accepted the position of head coach at Reinhardt College.

On Aug. 31, Reinhardt, once with only a junior college athletic program, will play its first football game under Cronic against another debuting team, Mercer University, in Macon.

“There’s interest up there,” said Cronic about the school with three campuses headquartered in the Cherokee County town of Waleska. “The community is changing. I-575 is not far away and has opened up the mountain area. The school has been growing by leaps and bounds.”

Reinhardt has its own stadium, and that certainly helped Cronic in finding players.

“I have been in the state coaching a long time,” said Cronic, who was a walk-on player himself at the University of Georgia out of Madison County High School. He also has six years of college coaching experience as an assistant at West Georgia and Middle Tennessee State. “The main thing about Georgia is the quality of high school coaches and the interest in the community. They don’t want to quit when they are seniors in high school.”

For this season, Cronic has either redshirt freshmen who have been with him a year, true freshmen or a handful of sophomore and junior transfers. His son and offensive coordinator, Drew Cronic, worked with Bobby Lamb for nine years at Furman, and his defensive coordinator, Steve Wilson, coached with Lamb for 14 years. Cronic himself coached Lamb’s brother Hal at West Georgia.

Reinhardt is an NAIA program in the Mid-South Conference. The Eagles are eligible for the conference championship, but Cronic knows the main goal this first year is being competitive.

“They are going to be playing against juniors and seniors,” he said. “That will have some impact as the season wears on. I can tell a lot of difference in our players (from last fall) through the weight program. I’ve always wanted to be a head coach in college, so it’s special. I want to go as long as I can. I enjoy playing golf, but I enjoy football more.”

And Cronic knows the importance of recruiting the entire state, including middle and south Georgia.

“I think we get a majority of the kids who come on campus,” he said. “The main thing is getting them to see the campus, see the mountains. We have a beautiful fieldhouse and good coaching staff. I think it sells itself.”

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