Howard loses coaching legend as Hester leaves to take over as Bibb County athletics director

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          A decade ago, nobody but nobody would have predicted what happened Thursday.

          Even though teams from the GHSA and GISA didn’t play each other back then, and FPD was a few years from joining the GHSA, there was in Bibb County a rivalry of sorts between the associations, between media coverage and differences in rules, and recruiting charges.

          To think one of the billboards for GISA football would eventually become athletics director in Bibb County? Not a chance.

          But Barney Hester, among the state’s winningest football coaches, was approved for the position Thursday at the Bibb County Board of Education’s regular meeting.

          Outgoing AD Eddie Ashley speculated about the possibility a few weeks ago at the Macon Touchdown Club’s year-end jamboree, and Southwest head coach Joseph Dupree nodded in agreement.

          Ashley took over the position in October of 2012, and announced at the start of this school year his intention to retire at the end of the year. The position was full time under Raynette Evans, who retired at the end of the 2010-11 school year after 34 years in Bibb County.

          The county went without an AD for a period, and then Ashley took over as interim and then regular athletics director, the job initially part-time and becoming full-time again.

          Thus, the filling of one vacancy creates another. Hester gives up his job as head football coach and athletics director at Howard as of Thursday, thus putting an end – unless he decides one day to return to the sidelines – to a hall of fame coaching career.

          “I’d been thinking about it for awhile,” Hester said Thursday night, just after telling his family of the official career change. “We haven’t won big like I wanted to, but I think the program’s turned, I really do. I think we’ve made some inroads, and I think we’re going to be fine for awhile. If I’m going to go out, it’s a good year for me to go out.”

          Hester said he wasn’t thinking about a career move until he began talking with Ashley about the athletics director position, and conversations started steering him in that direction.

          He said there are no health issues, and that had this position not opened, he’d have kept coaching.

          “I would have stayed on the sideline,” Hester said. “I wouldn’t have given it up. But I don’t know that I would ever be ready to give that up. The right thing had to come in for me to give it up.”

          Hester is, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website, the sixth winningest head football coach in Georgia history, with a 340-167-9 record in 43 seasons, 31 at Tattnall and the last five at Howard, after starting his career at Josey Academy in East Dublin (5-24 n three years) and Gordon-Ivey (9-32 in four years).

          He started at Tattnall in 1982 and had two losing seasons, going 4-6-1 in 2004 and 4-8 in 2012, his final season with the Trojans.

Barney Hester and wife Lynn

          The 64-year-old, who grew up in the shadows of East Laurens High, coached his 500th game in early 2016 and led Howard to its first playoff game in program history in 2017. And he leaves with mixed emotions, knowing what’s coming.

          “We lose two offensive guards, two defensive backs, and three defensive linemen,” Hester said. “We lost five on defense, two on offense. Our guys are getting bigger and stronger, they’re starting to believe.”

          No, Hester’s first job as athletics director won’t be leading the search to replace Hester the now-former head football coach.

          “I’ll have a part in that,” he said. “I will have conversations, but it will not be my call. The principal, Dr. (Shannon) Norfleet is in charge of that. The principal has hiring power. They’re responsible for the schools, all the hires.”

          He said he was happy with how Ashley communicated with and stood up for coaches, and increased communication in the community. He wants to continue and expand that, saying meeting and establishing relationships with all the principals in the county is his first objective.

          “This is a partnership,” he said. “The principals are in charge of the school, and I’m in charge of athletics. I think that relationship is very important.”

          And part of all his objectives includes a heavy dose of listening.

          “I want to find out the concerns of the people we have in place,” said Hester, who was headmaster at Tattnall for 13 of his 31 years there. “I don’t think anybody’s ever satisfied. I was never satisfied when we went undefeated and won the state championship. I don’t think you ever get satisfied. We’ve got a lot of things we can do.

          “The bottom line is it’s all about the kids, providing opportunities for the kids. You want the best program in place to provide the best (opportunities). You only have four years to go through this thing, so you went the best opportunities for those kids you can get.”