Northside legend Conrad Nix inducted into GACA Hall of Fame, Perry’s Kevin Smith reflects on community impact

Former Northside football coach Conrad Nix has a legacy that goes far beyond a game and reaches deep into the community.

Kevin Smith, head football coach at Perry High School and one-time assistant to Nix, knows that better than anyone.

Smith, along with several other former assistants and Northside faithful, were in attendance when Nix was inducted into the Georgia Coaches Association Hall of Fame last weekend.

“It was well overdue,” Smith said. “It meant so much because he put so much into the game. He put so much into Northside High School. I think we played for five state championships under him and we won two of them. We won numerous region championships, we’d beaten Warner Robins [after] Warner Robins had dominated that series for a long time.”

But that mountain of achievements, and finally a Hall of Fame induction, hasn’t changed Nix.

“Coach Nix has never been the one [to say] it’s about him…it was always about the team,” Smith said. “When we took a group picture [after the ceremony] he turned around and he said, ‘This is for the Northside family.’ He truly meant that. What he did to change players’ lives, change coaches’ lives, it was just remarkable what he did.”

That weekend was a time for the group to share stories and catch up. It took Smith back to his youth.

He grew up in LaGrange and started his coaching career in 1994 at Griffin High School. He knew of Nix, but not much else.

That was soon to change, when Griffin’s head coach retired, and Nix brought Smith over to coach the defensive line in the spring of 1996. Young, relatively inexperienced and navigating the loss of his father, Nix filled more than one void.

“Meeting him for the first time…he said, ‘I think you’ll be a great fit for Northside football. Come down here and learn, hopefully my beliefs and my coaching philosophy can rub off on you and help you be a successful coach later in life,’” Smith said.

The thing that stuck with Smith the most was how much Nix genuinely cared about not just his players, but his coaches and community.

“[He] showed a lot of empathy with his coaches, he didn’t forget where he came from,” Smith said. “Me, as a young coach, I made mistakes and he called me in and straightened me out, and I learned from that. He didn’t just say, ‘If you do that again, I’m gonna have to fire you,’ or something…the support that he gave the coaches in the training and teaching them how to deal with people had a major, major impact on me and the Northside community.”

That support didn’t just look like constructive coaching, either.

The life of a coach is demanding. In an attempt to find balance between the job and raising his oldest daughter, Sarah, Nix’s wife, Patsy, helped take care of her when the hours were long.

It wasn’t just Patsy; Wives throughout the program looked after each other’s children. “We took care of each other,” Smith said.

Looking at Smith’s own program at Perry, it’s evident how that affected him.

“That is why I am the way I am down here at Perry High School,” Smith said. “We have the coffee bean culture, we have the family atmosphere. We don’t make excuses…We’re always on the positive side of things. The influence that he had as far as player-coach relationship made me realize this profession is a relationship-drive program.”

“The players, if you care about them they’ll run through a brick wall for you. But if you don’t care about them, if you’re just trying to use them, that’s a whole different animal. Players can see right through that.” he continued.

So while Nix’s coaching days may be over, Smith is just one of many who carry his legacy forward.