Meet Sean Pender! Coach Pender is the new football coach at North Hall High School and moved to Gainesville from Brunswick High School just last month. Sean grew up in Miami and Jacksonville, Fla. and is married to Dana and the couple has four children together. Last season, Pender was named the Georgia 6-A Coach of the Year. He currently has two former players starting at the University of Georgia: Warren McClendon (Brunswick High) and Stetson Bennett IV (Pierce Co.).
We want to thank Coach Pender for spending time with us recently and telling us more about his life and love of Hall County.
Q: How are you liking North Georgia so far?
A: “My wife’s family is from up here. Her mom and stepdad retired in Lake Hartwell, so when we come we visit the family…we would use their house as a base and we go hiking in Helen or up in Rabun. We always talked about how this would be a great place to live, near the mountains and lake.”
Q: How long have you been here in Hall County?
A: “Just a week (at the time of the interview)…All my coaching career, I’ve been in Pierce County and Brunswick which were bigger schools. On my way up here to the interview, I realized this was more like Pierce County High School, even though North Hall High is part of the Hall County School System, it still had its own community. Then I saw the facilities and started talking to the administration and it felt like
a nice blend. It didn’t even feel like an interview, it felt like a conversation. After the interview I was driving back, it wasn’t six hours later, I got a phone call and offering me the job. And then as soon as I mentioned it to my wife, she without hesitation she said yes. She was more familiar with the area, we decided to take the leap of faith and come up here.”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “The landscape was the most attractive thing in the beginning but the people here are making it even a better place. The type of people are here are amazing.”
Q: What was the first movie you saw on the theatre?
A: “The first one I can remember seeing maybe ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ That’s the one that’s coming to my mind right now and my mom probably would say that I’m a liar. I also remember seeing ‘E.T,’ I saw it six times.”
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
A: “I don’t have a favorite yet…we went to The Collegiate and that was a phenomenal burger, it was really good. I’ve been to a few good places, I went to Poor Richards, and Luna’s. I really haven’t had a bad place to eat yet.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I’d like to win a state championship. Travel would be on the bucket list. I definitely would like to do an Alaskan cruise, I want to see the Northern Lights and I want to go to Australia and see the Outback.”
Q: What do you have planned for North Hall football in the next couple years?
A: “The style of offense I run is going to be different. There was the tough, hard nose wing-T, which is a very good offense. We’re going to be more of a spread it ball around, we’re going to put the ball in the air a lot more than people are used to. That comes from my background: the air raid type system. But even more important than the X’s and O’s is that North Hall has some really fine young men already, it’s a fine community, we want to make sure we’re still establishing the kids that come out of this program. I want to actually be able to do more in these kids’ lives, besides X’s and O’s. I want to teach them to be valuable members of the community, help them become really good fathers to their kids in the future and really great husbands to their wives.”
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
A: “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a perfect thing. I wake up and thank God for my blessings. If every day that I feel I’m making a difference in somebody’s life or someone’s affected in a positive way, I would rate that a 10 out of 10. Also, being with your family after a victory on a Friday night.”
