By voice and by play, Braunstein a leader for Demons on both sides
By Michael A. Lough
centralgasports@gmail.com
Warner Robins
Sam Bish knows how important Dillon Braunstein is, even if Braunstein doesn’t.
Evidence: Braunstein moved from full-time offensive lineman and part-time defender in 2016 to full-time defensive lineman and part-time blocker in 2017. Bish made the defense-to-offense move, too.
Braunstein’s job changed, but his impact didn’t. Bish was asked about who has helped push Warner Robins’ offensive line to the next level, to block for a 3,500-yard passer and a 1,200-yard rusher and pave the way for the Demons to go 14-0 and host Rome Friday in the GHSA Class 5A state title game.
Warner Robins QB Dylan Fromm is well aware of what Dillon Braunstein means to the Demons.
“I feel like Dillon’s that person,” said Bish, the Demons’ center. “He’s definitely the leader on the offense. If something’s not right, and he notices something on the defense that we don’t, he’ll tell us, and we’re able to make our checks and get the play off.”
Braunstein has the motor, regardless of which side of the line of scrimmage he’s on.
“If you watch him during a game, he’s like 10 times that in practice,” Bish said, with a chuckle. “He’s always yelling at somebody.”
Braunstein is certainly a player who stands out with his play, but it’s perhaps the other part of what he brings that has been more important to Warner Robins having this dream season. He’s experienced and hungry, and imparts both on his teammates, because he knows that is needed for a successful team.
“As a junior, I decided and figure out that when no one does it, then the team won’t be very good,” he said. “If no one stepped up as that leading by example (person) ...
There was a bit of a leadership learning curve.
“I tried to teach myself,” Braunstein said. “These guys ... a lot of them my best friends. Just having to get on to them sometimes really and try to teach them and tell them what they’re doing wrong, it can get kind of hard when you try to teach your friends.
“You’re the same age as them.”
Braunstein tries to temper his energy when discussing things with teammates.
“In my opinion, if you get in somebody’s face and embarrass them in front of everyone, then they’re not going to do too well,” he said. “They’re going to run away from that authority.”
Bish knows Braunstein gets amped, but also knows what he says carries weight.
“I know the coaches (say) it,” Bish said. “I think some of the guys, when they get it from Dillon, it was more like, ‘OK, maybe I should listen, because now we’re getting it from the coaches and the players.”
Braunstein admitted with a chuckle that there have been a few touchy exchanges, but only as part of an offseason during which the Demons pretty much transformed themselves from the 3-8 team of 2016 to the one that’s still playing.
The first season of head coach Mike Chastain was an unsettled one, from playing at quarterback a transfer who has now become an all-region defensive lineman to changing coordinator duties to additions and subtractions.
Little went right, although the Demons managed to make the playoffs in the five-team Region 1-5A. And it wasn’t, naturally, a pleasant feeling.
Warner Robins' Mike Chastain is getting plenty from Dillon Braunstein.
“I wouldn’t say we were missing chemistry,” Braunstein said. “What translated over was I guess we thought we didn’t have to work as hard last year. I guess we got a little too cocky.”
They were humbled, and changed that.
“After the season, we realized we really had to get to work to pick this thing up,” he said. “Nobody wanted to go out their senior year, not even their sophomore or junior year, even the freshman year, as the team that just sat down after a 3-8 season and give up.
“They wanted to be remembered as a great team.”
That process starts with older players. This senior class went 6-5 as freshmen and 7-4 as sophomore in a tougher Region 2-5A. Then came last year’s smack, and the offseason attitude adjustment.
“They wanted to be remembered as a great team,” the 6-foot-1, 285-pounder said. “All the seniors, we came together and decided we didn’t want to end up like the last (senior) group. ... We knew we could do it if we just worked over the summer. We basically said, ‘let’s kill ourselves to learn the new plays, learn the new defense, everything.’ It was work.”
Chastain knows what Braunstein has brought.
“He’s a guy that’s played two years for us on the offensive side of the ball, a two-year starter, he started every game as a sophomore,” Chastain said. “He’s played in a bunch of games on offense for us this year.
“He’s a vocal leader, he gets after it all the time. Like a guy that’s a coach on the field. He’s been playing so long, he knows what we want, he knows what we’re looking for. He just does a great job leading.”
Braunstein was moved to defense to add some size as the Demons made some schematic tweaks after a year of seeing who can do what, and who might be able to do what.
And Braunstein certainly fits in with a defense whose stubbornness keeps increasing.
The deep unit is loaded with playmakers, from Dalton Hedden to Jam’l Dillard (six sacks) up front, linebackers Bobby Kelly (team leader in tackles for loss, second in sacks) and Jerquan Parrish (team leader in tackles, third in tackles for loss), and defensive backs C.J. Harris and Key’Shawn Duvall (second and third in tackles, co-leaders with three interceptions each)
“I think it’s more cohesiveness that we have, and refusing to give up on every single play,” Braunstein said. “The mentality we have is, ‘That’s all they’re getting, they’re not getting any more.’ ”
That came from defensive coordinator Justin Montgomery, who came from Howard to join Chastain’s first staff.
“Coach Montgomery always says, ‘Play the next play, make them throw or run the perfect anything they’ve ever done,’ ” Braunstein said. “ ‘Make them be perfect every single play or they’re not getting anything.’ Over the summer, he said that, and it kind of clicked in our head. Then we realized we can make them do that, make them have to be perfect.”