Interventions Instructor and head football coach Oliver Lucas has been a mentor for many successful teams across the country. The next step in his career is to take GRC football to the next level. Smoke Signals sat down with Coach Lucas to ask about his experiences as a trainer and his plans for the future of the GRC Varsity football team.

Q: How did you first get involved with football?

A: It started many years ago. I got injured playing football my junior year, so I said, “There has got to be something I could be doing.” I went out and volunteered at a high school and the next thing you know, the bug bit me. I had every intention of being a doctor. That was my life. Everything I did was towards medicine, but the good Lord had other plans for me and I said, “Here are my choices.” I thought I could touch people’s lives and reach students through schools more than I could being a doctor, so that’s why I chose to be a coach and educator.

Q: What was it that interested you about coaching in particular?

A: Being able to work with young people and influence their lives, help them achieve their dreams, their goals, and their aspirations; I thought it was so rewarding.

Q: Since this is your first year as head coach for GRC, how do you plan on using past experiences to better the team this year?

A: I am a program builder, so I understand what it takes to be successful. I’ve been successful any place I’ve been and that’s not to toot my own horn or anything of that nature. My gift is to be a forward thinker. I can look where I’m at, where I’m going to take it, and how I’m going to get there. God didn’t create junk, so everybody’s got something good to offer and it’s up to me as a coach to find it.

Q: I’ve heard you’ve won a lot of championships: an orange bowl championship, national championships, etc. Have you learned anything from these successes?

A: Absolutely, you can take a lot of things from that. Winning breeds winning and success breeds success. I’ve been around some outstanding men in my life that have helped shape my career as a coach.

Q: You’re already very active around the school. How did you adjust to GRC and this new environment for you?

A: I enjoy being around the young people, because if you’re out of sight you’re out of mind. If they don’t know you, they surely won’t come play for you, so they’ve got to see you and know you’re an OK person and one that’s got their best interest, so that’s why I’m visible. I am at basketball games and when soccer comes around, I’ll go to the soccer games, etc. Whatever young people are doing, I want to be a support mechanism, and that comes back to you.

Q: With the experience of winning championships, what kind of adversity did you have to overcome to get to the point where you are?

A: I’d say quite a few. I’ve been a product of really being dirt poor. I’ve been a product of living with five people in a one-bedroom house in Los Angeles. I’m a product of “all hope is doomed” and everything else. My mother had me at the age of 14, so I’ve been a product of that as well. You have to look at your situation and there are two things that are going to happen to you: it’s going to break you or it’s going to make you. I chose to use that to motivate myself and I said, “Look, I am going to do this: I’m not going to have any kids out of wedlock (and I’m not knocking anybody that did that but it sets my goal and what I want to do), I want to graduate from college, then I’ll look for a wife, then I’ll buy a house, and then I’ll have children in that order, and that’s how I’ve always done things. You look at your situation and again you need to let it motivate you. If it’s not what you want it to be then make it what you want it to be.

Q: Now that you’re the coach of the football team, what do you look for in potential players?

A: I want a student who’s driven, a student that says, “I want to change my life, and here’s an opportunity for me to be a part of something that’s really big. It allows a for me to be a part of a fraternity for life.” Football is like life, you know you’re going to have your bumps and bruises, you’re going to get knocked down, but you can’t whine about it; you’re going to get back up and get back into the game of life and go forward. It’s something that young people gravitate to and that’s what’s so rewarding. Right now, we have 93 kids that signed up and that’s outstanding. I expect to hit 100.

Q: Why did you choose to coach at Clark County?

A: It has always intrigued me. This is not my first time knowing about Clark County. I’ve always wanted to be involved in a community-based school in town, where all the people are vested, everyone is familiar with everyone, and they want to be supportive of how can the young people flourish. That’s what I want to be a part of. I’ve always wanted that and I haven’t had that opportunity until now. That’s always been my prayer, “The good Lord, put me where that’s the only school in town, and I’ll make it a big town.”