By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
Have a conversation with Green Oaks coach Nick Peoples about his team’s 2-0 start and you’ll quickly notice the thing he’s least likely to talk about are topics that don’t have anything to do with what’s working for the Giants offense or some kind of new defensive strategy.
Instead, he will liberally sprinkle in words that you’d most likely hear from a motivational speaker.
Maturity.
Discipline.
Mindset.
Organization.
And just for the heck of it, he might even throw in a Biblical verse.
So much for trying to get specific details about the Giants’ great start.
Then again, maybe those are the keys.
“We are just making sure we are stacking our days together, one percent a day at a time,” the second-year coach said. “Once we do that it’ll equal up to 100% before we know it. We are just making sure that we’re continuing our standard of being disciplined, making good choices as young men and as athletes and making sure that we’re having fun and playing hard.”
There you have it. Nowhere in there was any discussion of zone reads and weakside blitzes.
But something is obviously working as the Giants have outscored their two opponents by a combined 88-12.
Now comes the biggest test so far – the 2-0 Booker T. Washington Lions. The two teams will meet in the annual “Soul Bowl” at Leonard C. Barnes Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
It’s a game that means a lot to a lot of people but Peoples is cautious with his team to not make it too big. Could it be a situation in which the Giants focus too much on this game and lose sight of the rest of their schedule?
“Oh, no, that’s not an issue,” he said. “I know it’s a special game, but it’s just another game on our list that we have to check off in order to reach our goals. I’ve just been kind of trying to convey that message of, ‘Hey guys, I know it’s our rival. I know it’s a big game, but we have to do this in order to accomplish our ultimate goal for the season.’”
It’s always a step up in classification for the Giants, a 2A school, against the Class 4A Lions but it’s just another challenge for Green Oaks. Peoples feels that his team has shown it has what takes after a 3-7 season last year.
“I’ve noticed maturity,” he said. “The majority of the guys that are playing on the field now, have played since they were freshmen. So just being able to see them grow as men and grow with changes to attitudes and changes in character and just having those morals and values. That maturity is the biggest thing.”
But there has been more to it than just maturity. “I would say organization and discipline.” Peoples said. “It’s by the way that we do things; how our sideline looks, the way the players run on and off the field and the way that we execute plays.”
Just don’t ask Peoples if he is surprised by what he has seen so far in 2026.
“I can’t use the word surprised, because surprise is when you don’t have expectations,” he said. “I would say it’s more like I’m the teacher and I’m grading the tests. So far, I’m more proud of them being able to pass the test by not having turnovers and being able to score.”
Peoples likes to use the teaching analogy because he’s not all that wild about the title of head coach. He was an assistant for four years at Green Oaks before taking over the top spot. He’s been learning as much as the players have.
“I’ve taken things from everyone I’ve worked with to become a head coach,” the 32-year old Peoples said. “There’s a saying in the Bible that fools despise wisdom. I’ve relied a lot on my mentors. One of the best pieces of advice I got was ‘make this team into what you know it to can be. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just take it and make it your own.’ Even as an assistant, I’ve always prepared myself as if I was the head coach of the positions I coached.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com