By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          When Mark Daniel was hired at Rutland, the Hurricanes got a head coach with a pretty good resume, the best it’d had in its short life.

          He went 59-24 in seven seasons at Screven County, winning three region titles and the state championship in 2002 with a 24-7 win over Dublin. He was inducted in 2015 to the Screven County Hall of Fame.

          Otherwise, he had two-year stops at Fitzgerald, Wayne County, and Schley County, going 18-44.

          But Rutland principal Kent Sparks was on Daniel’s staff at Screven County for one season, and that’s the coach he hired in January of 2016 to bring a background of discipline and success.

          Alas, the hopes never became reality, and Daniel announced his resignation Wednesday morning.

          “I’m going to put in papers for retirement,” said Daniel, who has more than 30 years in the state school system. “I committed to Mr. Sparks that I’d give him a minimum of three years, and ‘I’m really going to try to turn it around.’ It’s just, you know ...

          “My wife had back surgery this year. It’s just the timing of everything. It’s just time.”

          Rutland went 2-27 in Daniel’s three seasons, going winless the past two years.

          Rutland has struggled for success and consistency since the first season in 2003. The Hurricanes went 7-15 in the first two seasons under Bob Davis, who gave way to Lance Perlman.

          The Hurricanes made progress each year under Perlman, who went 1-9, 4-6, and 7-4, but ostensibly things weren’t working out and he left after the 2007 season. Three years later, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission recommended sanctioning Pearlman on allegations of student mistreatment.

          On came George Collins, who had been head coach at Perry for six seasons and Houston County for one.

          Collins went 23-58 at Rutland, peaking with a 6-5 season in year six, and he retired after going 1-9 in 2015.

          The Hurricanes have had three non-losing region seasons, with a pair of 4-4 years in there.

          Daniel’s career as an assistant has been impressive as well: Riverview Academy (1987-88), Coffee County (1988-90), Camden County (1991-93 under legendary Luther Welsh), Screven County (1996-98 under Welsh), Thomson (2006-07 under Welsh), Greene County (2010-11), Lee County (2012) and Americus-Sumter (2013).

          He played under Welsh at Dougherty.

          The Navy veteran hoped to bring discipline to the Hurricanes, but the losing program led to the departures of players. Some, Daniel believed, had been enticed to leave, as he said bluntly in August at Bibb County’s football media day.

          “Over the years, Rutland has been a feeder program for other schools around the area,” he said. “What you see happening a lot of times now is people don’t deal with things anymore, they recruit. So we have a tough time trying to keep our kids from being recruited. Not just me, but these other coaches, being recruited to Jones County and being recruited to Warner Robins and all those big schools like that.”

          That only reiterated what he said in a short 2017 Q&A with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and did so again on Wednesday, saying that coaches around the state accept that looking for players is part of keeping their job.

          “There are schools where coaches aren’t winning, and they’re getting fired,” he said. “It’s nice when you can coach it the way it’s supposed to be coached and teach kids what you’re supposed to be teaching them.”

          Daniel entered the season believing the Hurricanes had at least a little momentum and perhaps confidence despite going winless in 2017.

          “We lost two in the last minute, and we were close in another one,” he said in August. “We dropped a wide open touchdown pass, and a couple plays later, they had a pick-6. That was a 14-point swing.”

          He said character development was a priority for 2018.

          “A lot of times when you have teams that have not been winning much, the attitudes kind of get bad,” he said before the season. “When I got here, my vision was to turn things around, but I didn’t want to run everybody off the first time like some people do.”

          He wanted to teach and change attitudes, and that was somewhat difficult with older players, leading to negative leadership. Those players were gone, Daniel said, and he hoped to see that progress in 2018.

          That’s likely to remain an issue, along with attracting athletes at Rutland who aren’t playing football.

          The Hurricanes lost three winnable games in 2018: 24-7 to Class A Hawkinsville in the opener, 22-16 to winless Class 3A Worth County in mid-September, and 26-13 to Region 4-3A opponent Kendrick two weeks later.

          Daniel said Rutland lost 11 potential starters his first year to other schools. He said he battled a work ethic problem as well as little support in the community. Players quit or transferred because of discipline, and Daniel said that had a major impact on those who stayed and played.

          He said one player talked of “no hope,” and of frustration when suddenly teammates were opponents.

          As frustrated as Daniel was – and he admitted the job had more problems than he expected - he raved about those who stuck it out, like Andre Dennis, who entered the season with optimism.

          “I’m just ready to show, showcase that our team is not the laughingstock,” Dennis said at media day, “and that we’re actually pretty good,”

          Daniel remembered that.

          “I feel for the kids,” he said. “None of the kids on this team that finished the season with us are laughingstocks or losers. All those kids that quit, all those kids that refused to do the work and lift weights and do what they needed to do, those are the ones that are losers.

          “These kids are winners. They’re gonna gain so much from being out here and doing what they did.”