The 38-year coaching veteran and new Straughn High School head football coach Joel Williams has one thing in mind for his new football team, a change in mindset.

“Before I get into any kind of schematics, my big focus with the players is going to be to get strong and change the mentality,” Williams, who was hired at Straughn on Tuesday, said. “I call the weight room my baby, I mean, I’m still a power lifter, so it’s near and dear to my heart that we got to go in there and get strong.”

Williams currently serves as offensive coordinator at Delta State University. He previously has been a head coach at T.R. Miller, Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga., Milton High School, Gadsden High School, and UMS-Wright.

Williams had a chance to talk with his players Tuesday before the meet and greet held in the Straughn High School cafeteria, and he told them that since he hasn’t seen the players play, he doesn’t know exactly what offense or defense he will run.

“I told the players today, offensively and defensively I don’t really know what to do yet,” Williams said. “I haven’t had the chance to watch them play or even throw a ball. So I can’t tell them the exact ‘X’s and ‘O’s of it yet. This is what I do know in my 38 years of coaching, don’t put a square peg in a round hole.”

Williams said that he can’t come into a place and say, “This is what I’m running.”

“A lot of times kids don’t fit into what you want to run,” Williams said. “I’ve been in offenses that have led the country in passing, I have also been in offenses that have been second in the country in rushing, so we are going to do whatever we do best. We could be anything from empty to the wishbone.”

Williams said defensively all he knows is that they will definitely be high pressure.

“Are we going to be odd front or even front? Again I don’t know until I see the guys we have,” Williams said. “The only that is for certain is that we are going to be high pressure.”

Another thing from a football standpoint that Williams said he is going to focus on is making the team disciplined.

“We have got to become an extremely disciplined team,” Williams said. “We have to eliminate penalties and turnovers. If we do that then I don’t think it matters what your schematics are. So those are our goals and we will go about them any way we need to do it.”