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Schools

A Football Coach's Perfect Harmony

Pope assistant Tom Flugum performs for music lovers during the summers.

The gruff sport of football is not all that defines Pope High School assistant football coach Tom Flugum.

Every Thursday night at Johnny’s New York Pizza in Kennesaw, Flugum puts aside his work developing defensive game plans for entertaining the patio crowd with his acoustic guitar.

Among the crowd-pleasing favorites songs are “Wagon Wheel,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Landslide,” along with more contemporary songs and a few originals now and then.

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Flugum, the Greyhounds' linebackers and JV coach and defensive coordinator and formerly Wheeler's head coach, started playing guitar while his two children were growing up. Initially, he taught himself how to play, then sought lessons when he found songs he wanted to learn but could not figure out on his own.

“I got to a point where I understood chord structure but didn’t understand music theory," Flugum said. "Lessons led me to better practicing and an understanding of how you can improvise with solos to add style.”

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Flugum began taking lessons from Cory Boyles, one of the guitar and keyboard players in the Zac Brown Band, and he says he feels lucky to have studied with Boyles for a year before the band began touring.

Flugum now studies at Jennings Music Center on Canton Road, under Danny Manning, a performing musician in the local band The Wheels.

“I try to learn two new songs a week," Flugum says. “And I’m getting better all the time. I practice everyday.” He says he’s been learning songs from the Decemberists most recently. “It can be intense, but it feels good to learn.” 

Flugum says he likes playing the guitar because he enjoys the relaxation and escape it can provide, but also because it's a challenge to take a song and figure out how to play it.

After high school, Flugum served for three years in the United States Army and then spent the next eight years as a Cobb County police officer. It was during this time that Flugum decided he wanted to be a teacher.

“I thought to myself, you’d like to think that a lot of these kids I’m arresting wouldn’t be getting in trouble if they had a more positive influence.”

Flugum, who participated in football, baseball, wrestling, and track during his own high school days says, “My own teachers and coaches were highly influential in my life. My dad wasn’t around and they taught me about being a man and such.”

Since Flugum worked the graveyard shift as a police officer, he attended classes during the day at Kennesaw State University to become a teacher and coach because he wanted to be “working with and developing kids." 

Flugum has coached at several high schools in Cobb County, including Lassiter, Sprayberry, and Wheeler before joining the Pope staff last year.

Much like the challenge he presents to himself in learning guitar, Flugum says he enjoys coaching because “it is fun developing kids and watching when they have success from stuff we’ve been working on, teaching them the little things, making kids better.”

Flugum says he welcomes the times when his students are a part of the crowd at Johnny's taking in his performances. “Music is such a big part of life, and it’s just fun.” He says. “It’s all good.”

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