AMBOY – Throughout the 2023 football season we spoke with Amboy-Ohio-LaMoille football coach Scott Payne after or before every game.

During every chat, the fourth-year coach gave props to his players and coaching staff for a job well done.

Now it’s time to pay it forward and hear what players and assistant coaches of the 2023 Illinois 8-Man Football Association state champion Clippers have to say about their head coach, Scott Payne.

Landon Whelchel

Senior, RB, LB

“With Coach Payne, he was our first high school coach, and we were his first freshman class. His first year was the COVID-19 year, so it doesn’t really count. The second year we made it to the semifinals. The third year we lost at state. It gave us a sour taste. 

“He has the right in between of being a friend and a coach. When it’s time to coach, he gets serious and is good about keeping our head straight. He explained to us earlier in the year, if he’s yelling at us, it means he cares. You learn to brush it off and realize he’s trying to help us.”

Landon Montavon

Senior, OL/DL

“Coach Payne is a great coach. He’s very deserving of Coach of the Year. He’s always been there to push us to do our best. He’s a great guy to mentor us. He makes sure we do it right. That’s what helped us get as far as we did the last couple of years.

“He watches ton of film to make sure we got our game plan set. He makes sure we know what the other team is going to do in certain formations. It makes us play better when we see how bad he wants to win the game.

“It makes us want to win even more.”

Tyson Powers

Assistant coach

“What Coach Payne does well is he builds relationships. Our program focuses on building relationships because it’s about building the person. He does a really good job of being on that line of there is a time to work and there is a time to take a step back and have some fun. You run into some coaches that are grind, grind, grind. Coach Payne can draw the line and I think it keeps it fresh.

“He can get on Brennan Blaine, or any other player, for making a mistake one minute and 30 seconds later he’s cracking a joke and they’re having a good time. Having a relationship with the players and the coaches was a big key to our success.”

Brennan Blaine      

Senior, TE/DE

“I feel like a lot changed from last year even though it was the same team. We felt last year’s championship loss and none of us wanted to feel that again, even coach.

“Practice was a lot different. We never missed a day of conditioning. You talk about summer lifting and conditioning; it was year-round for us. We never slowed down. He had us in shape and ready to go every game. Add him watching film and studying everything about our opponent, he put us in position to win every week.

“We trust coach Payne and we were bought in. He wanted it just as bad we did. We complained about practices and training, but after we won the state title, some of the guys and I were talking and we agreed, it was worth it.”

Trey Payne

Senior, OL/DL

“It’s pretty cool having my uncle as my coach. He’s helped me become a better player at the sport I love my entire life. He made us work hard every day. It made us better as a team.

“He got us fired up before every game with his pregame speeches. He helps motivate us every week.”

Kenny Shrimplin

Assistant coach

“He is a very close friend. He’s someone that truly cares about the kids. He has his game plan in his head and the game face to match. He knows how to have fun. He’s a serious guy, but he knows how to relax and take it easy.

“He flat out told the kids, ‘You have to work to earn anything in life. What’s nice about him is, he’s not always about football. He wants to make sure these boys turn into men. His mentality is, ‘If you want this, you have to go get it.’

“He pushed the kids, but he was positive and showed them what could happen if they worked to earn something.”

Abel Sustaita

Assistant coach

“He was focused. He had his gameplan for the season. He thought about it all summer. When we came in, he had everything mapped out of how we wanted to do it. He stayed with it. He stayed driven and kept the kids driven. It felt like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“The big thing I noticed was the accountability. Coach Payne focused on keeping everyone the same and to have the team’s focus on the same thing. He held the players accountable on the field, how they act in town, and in the classroom. He was high on discipline and keeping the athletes accountable. They fed off of it. He refused to lose, so they refused to lose.

Quinn Leffelman

Junior, FB/DE

“His willingness to win helped us. I think he thought winning comes first all of the time. It wasn’t the player’s feelings. Not the fans or parent’s feelings. It was winning first. He always pushed us to do our best because it would result in wins. Winning football came first. He’s also real good at putting the team first and doing what he thinks will be best. He likes to make things as enjoyable as possible.

“Coach Payne was real good about expressing how important it is to do our job. If everyone did their job, we would win games.”

Eddie Jones

Junior, QB/DB

“He helped me with reading the defense and calling audibles. He worked with me through everything I had to do as the starting quarterback. At first, I had issues with a six-man front defense. I communicated with Trey on what to do if we were running a pass play and how the line was going to block.”

Jeramey Wittenauer

Assistant coach

“When we were in practice, it was business. Every once in a while, he mixed some pleasure with business, but at the end of the day, the kids knew what was expected of them. They responded well because of the respect they have for coach Payne.

“With success and expecting to get to the championship, comes pressure. He tried to keep as much pressure off of them as he could. It’s been a thrill to coach with him. We’ve had ups and downs, but it’s been a blast. We’ve been around each other so much over the years, we can almost tell what the other is thinking.”