What a difference a year makes.

Ellwood Christian went from 2-8 to a second round playoff team in the first year under head coach Eric Martinear, which is one of the many reasons he has been named the Times-Journal’s coach of the year.

“To be mentioned in this category of coach of the year and to have one of your players be named player of the year, it means a lot to the program,” Martinear said. “[I have to thank] my coaching staff, pastor Crum, coach Walker, for giving me a chance to lead these guys.”

In their two county matchups, the Eagles defeated rival Keith for the second year in a row and played 6A Selma competitively for three quarters.

Ellwood defeated A.L. Johnson on the road to lock up a playoff spot and then defeated J.U. Blacksher for the first playoff victory in school history.

The Eagles also hosted their first playoff game, falling to Billingsley. Although Ellwood lost that game 72-12, it didn’t put a damper on a season that saw the school accomplish so much.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished,” Martinear said. “It took a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of patience, with 15 seniors trying to get them to buy into the program and be a role model for the young kids that are coming along and set the foundation for years to come.”

Martinear’s high octane, big play offense — “HOBO”, as he likes to call it — put pressure on opponents to try to keep pace. The Eagles scored over 30 points five times this year, compared to only one last season.

“To go from [averaging] 11 points a game to over 27 points a game is outstanding,” Martinear said. “… [Credit] goes out to the kids to the players, because they paid attention to detail.”

After an impressive first year on the job, Martinear sees plenty of areas where the program can continue to grow.

He’s planning an offseason weight-training program with hopes of getting bigger, faster and stronger so that the Eagles can better compete with the likes of Selma, Maplesville and Linden.

“If you want to be a winning program and a championship program, it starts in the offseason, not in August,” Martinear said.

The coach sees athletes in several sports that can play at the collegiate level of athletics, and he’s trying to get them there.

“We are trying to run a college program on the high school level,” Martinear said.

“To be able to sign big time, colleges want college football players in high school not high school players trying to go to college. There’s a difference.”