By Addison Montoya
Deldrick Douglas has many different titles at Captain Shreve but most everyone knows him as The Hype Man of the Swamp. Coach Doug was named as the 318 Sports Coach of the Week following the Gators’ win over C.E. Byrd earlier this year.
Coach Douglas is the Hype Man because he is cheering on his teams and boosting the Gator spirit at every single football game and pep rallies .
Coach Douglas intends to keep the team and students motivated throughout the course of the game no matter what. He tries to have the best attitude and show the students what it means to be such a big part of the team.
The famous quote most people know by Douglas is “We all we got…We all we need!” He often shouts this phrase at football games and pep rallies at The Swamp. It shows how he feels about Captain Shreve and how much the school has impacted him.
He states, “I hope this is one of those things that I’ve left here after I’ve retired knowing all the glory is still here 50-60 years from now! Hopefully that’s one of those things that just becomes legendary around here.”
Coach Doug says his favorite part of his job of hyping up the students is seeing the student packed full of students cheering on the team and showing school spirit.
Coach says, “When I look at that student section and I just see them kids and they are looking back at me, I just know that they believe that we are going to get it done! I know that they understand that even if they’re not on the field they are the biggest part of the team. We feed off their energy! When I come out the tunnel with the team in the smoke, in front of the student section, especially at Lee Hedges, standing in front of that student section just gets the team more frenzied up, just more crazy.”
Coach Doug is the freshman football head coach. He works very hard every season to push many young freshmen and grow them to be the best they can possibly be for Captain Shreve. He also makes best use of how many different kids there are coming in from all different schools. It’s challenging to make them become one team and learn “The Shreve Way.”
“Coaching the freshman to play and forget about the way they were taught how to do things from Youree, CMM, Ridgewood, Walnut Hill, or wherever they were at one time is a challenge, but I instill it very early that this is the way things are gonna be done! This is the Shreve Way, so let’s move forward! They get it pretty fast, you know, just by choice or a little force here and there I think the freshman program is trending up. And that is the most important part of our program… if you don’t have young guys coming up and replacing that older guys it’s just a matter of time before your program goes down! It’s my job to make them the best they can be so they can be good when they’re sophomores juniors and seniors.”
Above all else, Coach Douglas is a proud Captain Shreve supporter.
“I want to thank everybody for embracing me and allowing me to be me! Thank you to everybody for keeping my rally cry going and supporting the Gators! I was just always taught to do my job because it’s my job to do my job! Whatever’s needed for me to do I’m gonna do it and if it makes students happy, it makes them excited, then I did a thousand fist bumps a day, I just keep giving them because the kids are loving it! You know I’m gonna keep doing it, so thank you for recognizing me as the Coach of the Week. Go Gators!”