A new era of football begins at E.C. Glass

New head coach Jamar Lovelace talks over a route with quarterback Marty Kittrell during practice Wednesday at E.C. Glass High School.

E.C. Glass junior Brayden Morgan completes a catch and run up the right sideline during practice at the school Wednesday.

E.C. Glass' Marty Kittrell, one of two quarterbacks expected to play for the Hilltoppers this season, unleashes a pass at Wednesday's practice as new coach Jamar Lovelace (far right) looks on.

When Jamar Lovelace stands on the practice field at E.C. Glass instructing players and watching their movements, one thing is clear: it's a new era of football at E.C. Glass, one unparalleled in the school's 100-plus years of football history.

For the first time, the school has a Black head football coach. Lovelace, a 35-year-old who played high school football at Brookville and was an assistant coach there and at Glass before a five-year stint as head coach at Roanoke's William Fleming, isn't taking his new role lightly.

His appointment is historic, not just at E.C. Glass, but in the Seminole District. No school in the eight-team district had ever hired a Black head coach until last season, when Liberty High announced Daryl Robinson. Lovelace is the second Black head coach in the district's decades-long history.

On Friday, he'll lead the Hilltoppers for the first time. Glass, which made school history in 2022 by advancing to a state semifinal for the first time in nearly three decades, hosts Lord Botetourt at 7:30 p.m. at Lynchburg City Stadium.

So for the first time in school history, many players at E.C. Glass — the roster is made up of a majority of Black players — will look up at their head coach and see someone who looks like them.

"It means so much," Lovelace said Wednesday. "It's not something I take lightly. In this coaching and teaching profession there aren't a lot of minority males, and I want this profession to be something that guys want to do one day. And I want to be a great example and someone the kids can look up to, a good example after a win or a loss. And a good example on how to handle adversity and how to handle some triumphs."

The Hilltoppers return several players from that successful 2022 run that produced 12 wins and just two losses. Running back and all-state linebacker Mike Thomas is back for his senior season. Sam Treacy, Mike Osei and Jamar Smith give the team good options at receiver. Stepping in at quarterback are guys with football experience, Marty Kittrell and Max Calloway.

And defensively, Thomas at linebacker, KJ Smith on the line and Osei at defensive back gives Glass three all-region returnees.

The varsity team is 52 players deep, with six or seven of those players joining the team from the JV squad.

"I think our team was left in such good hands with coach [Jeff] Woody, so it's been good taking over a football team with high expectations and with some good values and culture already in place," Lovelace said. "I think everybody's acclimating really well to the new system and the new things we're doing offensively and defensively."

Glass will continue operating out of the spread offense, with Lovelace adding his own wrinkles, and out of a 4-4 defense, with two middle linebackers.

"Last year Glass was bigger and stronger up front than anybody expected," Lovelace said. "We've still got about three, four guys returning from up front, and we want to spread the ball out and be unpredictable on offense. We should be able to get into multiple formations and put a lot of different personnel packages on the field."

Thomas is excited about his team's possibilities and about playing for Lovelace.

"For the first time in history, it's great," he said of the coach's arrival. "And he's a real stern leader, which I think is what this team needs to be successful. Without that, you can't really do much."

Avante Brown, a junior linebacker and h-back Lovelace said will provide unselfish play for the Hilltoppers this year, pointed out the energy his squad has shown in practice.

"There shouldn't be any low energy," he said. "It's high energy every day."

He cast last year's state semifinal loss to Kettle Run as "old news." "We've got to pick up on the new season," he added, "worry about the new news."

And a big part of that new news is Lovelace, who for three years beginning in 2015 was an assistant under Woody at Glass before beginning his head coaching career at Fleming.

"It's definitely inspirational," Brown said, "especially to any kind of Black people who are really into that kind of thing. I would say it's just like having a regular, old coach. He's just who he is. He's a great guy. I don't know how to explain it, but it does feel a lot different."

Treacy, a junior, expects the receiving corps to be better than last year's. He also spoke about the changes the program has gone through this year.

"I think we're gonna be really good," he said. "I like how organized the coaching staff is and I really like the way practices and everything, the football team is run."

The state semifinal loss stuck in his head during the offseason.

"It stuck in everybody's head," Treacy said. "We can't forget it. Just the first time we've ever been in an opportunity like that, and it wasn't the outcome that we wanted. It just makes us work even harder. Everyone's angry and pissed off about last year, and we just want to get back to that position and this time get the job done."

Getting back to that spot also would be historic. The Hilltoppers last played in back-to-back state semifinal games in 1994 and '95, when the playoffs featured just four rounds instead of the five rounds it has now.

And if they do get there, it'll also be historic because of the man at the helm. The one who wants to set a solid example. The one who demands excellence of his players. The one who knows all eyes are on him as a new era begins.

"I think the example we provide as coaches means so much to kids at a school like E.C. Glass," Lovelace said. "I think coaches can make a difference no matter where they are, but I think here it's very important to have males, especially minority males, in leadership roles. And I think it makes the reality of what guys can become much easier to see.

"The saying is, 'They will become what they see.' So we want to be a good example of what they see."

Ben Cates, (434) 385-5527

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