After resigning his position as head football coach at Georgiana, Greg Ennis looked at his past and decided to make it his future agreeing to join the staff of Opp High School as an assistant coach. There he will partner again with Jack Whigham, old friend and coaching buddy.

&#8220Coach Whigham and I coached together at T.R. Miller for 10 years and we've known each other since little league all-stars when he played for Opp and I played for Andalusia,” said Ennis, who is currently working to fulfill his contract with the Butler County School System.

The move to Opp High, which is a 4A school, won't be all too unfamiliar for Ennis and especially his wife, who has been teaching middle school in Covington County this year.

&#8220Opp is a real nice place. They're about to build a brand new school and football stadium and they just built a new weight room for the female athletes,” Ennis said. &#8220The administration there has made us feel real happy and wanted.”

The coming year will be Whigham's first at Opp and he says having Ennis on his staff will be a real plus.

&#8220I feel very fortunate to have him,” Whigham said. &#8220He's always done a great job on the (practice) field and on Friday nights. He's very knowledgeable about the game and we need to bring in folks that are familiar with winning.”

Besides work ethic, Whigham said Ennis brings with him an ability to teach.

&#8220He has a good report with the kids,” he said. &#8220He relates to them well and does an excellent job with the average and below average player. It's easy to coach the great players. We'd all be great coaches if all we had was superstars.”

While he only served at the helm of the Panthers for one year, Ennis, who will also coach softball at Opp, said he thinks he and his coaching staff made some significant changes in the team.

&#8220I feel like we were a much more disciplined team and I feel like the work ethic was re-established for the players,” he said. &#8220We were getting a lot stronger and a lot faster. We were a young team last year and now they have some experience. We were expecting a really good season this (coming) year.”

Ennis said the thing he's the most proud of was the team's growth maturity wise.

&#8220We were going to Washington County last year for a game and we stopped to eat at a restaurant and the owner came up to me and told me our bunch was the most well-mannered and disciplined group of players that had stopped there,” he said. &#8220To me that was more important than winning the state championship.”