MOULTRIE – When he was coaching the quarterbacks and earning his master’s degree last year at Northern Illinois University, Austin Westbrook told himself that if he got back into high school coaching, he wanted a job with a top-rated program.
And then he got a call several months ago from Colquitt County’s Sean Calhoun, who invited him to Moultrie to take a look at the facilities and discuss the Packers’ record of success.
Westbrook, who played his high school football in Jasper, Ala., and then collegiately at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala., was well-aware of Colquitt County’s reputation.
“Everybody knows about Colquitt County,” he said. “They are like the standard for high school football.
“And when I got here, I fell in love with it.”
He also knew of many of the successful coaches who have served on Colquitt County football staffs in recent years, including Josh Crawford, now an assistant at Georgia; Shelton Felton, head coach at Valdosta; Andrew Crenshaw; Tracy Buckhannon; Granger Shook; and Travis Pearson.
Westbrook accepted Calhoun’s offer to replace inside receivers coach Quin Roberson, who left after last season to take a job as the offensive coordinator at Westlake.
Built like a whippet, Westbrook was a receiver himself at Walker High in Jasper and at Faulkner.
Encouraged by the men who had such an effect on him over the years, Westbrook decided to make coaching and teaching his career.
After graduating from Faulkner with a degree in sports management, he went to Fort Scott Community College in Kansas to work with the running backs.
In 2021, he returned to Alabama to become the co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Bessemer City High.
The next year, he was the offensive coordinator at Jackson-Olin High in Birmingham, Ala., before heading west again to coach the quarterbacks at Northern Illinois.
Westbrook considers himself an educator as much as a coach.
“I’ve wanted to try to inspire young men,” he said Monday after the Packers’ first post-dead week practice. “Football can take you a lot of places.
“I’ve always been sports-driven and football teaches a lot of life lessons, like how to be held accountable and how to show up on time. There are some things you get from football you just can’t learn anywhere else.”
And he himself is still learning and he is already picking the brains of the other members of the Packers staff.
Coaching the Colquitt County wide receivers is veteran David Hill Jr., also an Alabama football product.
“He is so knowledgable,” Westbrook said. “It’s been so great working with him. I just try to take something away from working with him every day.”
He also has been absorbing the years of offensive experience provided by Calhoun, offensive coordinator/running backs coach John Cooper, line coach Bryce Giddens and tight ends coach Buck Hanson, also a former Alabama high school football star and veteran coach.
The Packers are having to replace 17 seniors from a program that went 25-2 over the last two seasons.
And the receiving corps was especially hard-hit, with no one with any appreciable experience returning.
“But that’s the beauty of coaching,” Westbrook said. “Finding kids’ potential and motivating them to be the best players they can be.”
And while the current crop of receivers lacks playing time, it has plenty of potential.
He listed rising freshman Gavin Henderson and rising juniors Ni’Shawn Osby and Ny’Ryan Sumlin as some of the players Packer fans will want to keep an eye on.
“These guys are really, really talented,” Westbrook said. “That’s why the next three weeks are so critical.”