Mr. Riley Swanson is our new Assistant Director of Enrollment Management, as well as our head football coach. He has an extensive background in both fields which he will go on to explain, and is a fantastic addition to the Priory community.
How did you first learn about Priory?
I actually knew Mr. Nickolai. Believe it or not, his wife and his daughter were at my wedding eight years ago.
How did you guys meet?
So, my wife actually went to high school with Mr. Nickolai…I tell people all the time, you know, relationships are the keys to the door. Sure, you can have the credentials, but ultimately relationships are what opens the doors. So I saw the opening at Priory, was available, and reached out to Mike [Nickolai], who mentioned they were looking for a football coach. I always heard great things about Priory, the pedigree, history, and tradition. It was a no brainer; I love working with intelligent young men, it’s definitely bigger than football. Preparing guys for life beyond the football field is my passion because football ends for everybody, no matter how talented you are or how far you go with football. So it felt like this was a really good opportunity to make an impact on all of the guys here at Priory, make an impact on the community, and really just continue to help build this football program up to guys that have a sense of pride and appreciation for being able to go through the football program and build character skill sets that they can use for the rest of their life.
What are your aspirations for the football team this year with a student body of 300 kids?
Yeah, so the way that I’m looking at it, I’m not judging our success, by wins and losses. I really just want to be able to instill core values in this football program. I think core values are really important in every football program, and I want to teach the guys a sense of learning how to work smart, being efficient with your time, being able to kind of read yourself, read others around you, and just being creative in how we approach our work. With the adversity that we might face throughout the season we’re trying to build a team that’s united with guys that have that brotherhood to last a lifetime.
Tell us a little bit about your other role in the school…what does this mean to you?
Yeah, so I’m the Assistant Director of Enrollment Management, which I guess is the most important role from the standpoint that I think it is more important than being a football coach to continue to bring great students into the building is really, really important. From my experience in college football, recruitment is the most important aspect. So, I know a lot of people think that it’s football work every single day, but I got a lot of experience as far as recruiting, and that’s what I’ve always enjoyed doing.
We all heard the story you mentioned of you shooting 4 under par…can you tell us about it?
Yeah, so I started playing golf at the age of seven, in a town called Fayetteville, Georgia. It’s about 25 minutes south of Atlanta. My father picked up the game of golf when I was seven, and so I started to go out there on the golf course with them, and run through the fairways and play around on the greens. And all of a sudden he put a club in my hand, and I started to swing the golf club. So I went to some summer golf camps, at the age of seven, and by the age of nine, I was playing in the Atlanta Junior Golf Association. Started to do really, really well on the Junior Golf circuit. And so I would say, I was about 15, and it was the Optimist Junior qualifier, and it was just one of those days where it was completely mindless. It kind of just came to me to where I was putting the ball in the fairway and made some really good up and downs. The cup was huge that day. And the funny part was I felt like I was under the radar, guys weren’t quite counting on me to really be able to sustain it, but it was my home course so I knew all the ins and outs. But, yeah, just one of those days…could I go 4 under now…probably not.
When and how did you start playing football as a kid?
So really, as a kid, I just played golf and baseball. Those were my two sports that I excelled at. And I really feel like playing golf and baseball gave me a great sense of hand eye coordination. Interestingly, my baseball coach, he also had a rec football team, and he always wanted me to come out and play football, but my parents would say no. They didn’t want me to get hurt. So when I got to seventh grade, believe it or not, I had to sneak out for the football team. I was supposed to ride the bus home that day, and my mom had told me that she better see me get off that bus. But I was on the football field. I knew I had a skill set because I was a boy scout, and when we went on our boy scout trips, we would play tackle football. So she didn’t know that, and I was playing tackle football with all the Boy Scouts, out there making some big plays. Yeah, I was like, I think I got this, so I snuck out for the team. Of course, mom was like, all right, here we go. Dad was like, here we go. He’ll probably get hit a couple times and be done with football. So I stuck it out my seventh grade year and in eighth grade somehow became a starting quarterback. The first game I’m scoring touchdowns from all over the field just running the football. My parents were kind of just shocked and surprised, and they were more so shocked at my toughness getting hit. And so I tell people all the time, being a golfer made me really, really, really mentally tough. Gotta be stoic on the golf course. You make a double. Make a triple. I used to be furious out there.
Is there one moment throughout your whole football career that sticks out to you?
Yeah, I’ve got a few moments. I’m an ACC guy, played at Wake Forest University from 2002 to 2006 and my senior year we ended up winning the ACC championship game against Georgia Tech who had Calvin Johnson. I actually went to Sandy Creek High School, and if you guys do the Google search, Calvin Johnson went to Sandy Creek High School as well. Calvin was two years younger than me, so when I was a senior I was very familiar with Calvin Johnson. So the intimidation factor during the game wasn’t there. It’s like, I’ve known this young man since eighth grade, and so went out there in battle and made some plays. I mean Calvin, heck of a man. Me and Calvin would train during the off season so we were very familiar with each other. So we went out there, put on a performance, and made some plays. Wake Forest was fortunate enough to win the game from that standpoint. And so, a really cool moment right there for Wake Forest. They haven’t won an ACC Championship since that 2006 season. It’s a game where I can still feel every single play and hear the crowd and stuff like that at night.
Who are you taking, Michael Jordan or Lebron?
I’m a Michael Jordan guy. You know, that’s the era I was raised in. I think LeBron is a heck of a man, a heck of a competitor. But, you know, I do like MJ, just his ability to finish and attack. His ability to make his teammates better. I like the performance and the aura that Michael had as he transcended the sport, you know, it was all eyes on him. He knew that he was gonna take the shot, and he took it, and he made it look pretty, pretty easy. And the fact that he didn’t have any game 7s, always ended things in game 6. That’s intense, right there.
