Coaching update: Hester hopes Rutland's new head coach will be introduced in less than a week; Westfield searching
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
If Barney Hester has his druthers, he’ll be dealing with a new head football coach in less than a week.
Help wanted: Westfield
Westfield didn’t have to hire a head coach from 1993 to 2015, with Ronnie Jones wearing the top headset that whole time.
But the Hornets are in the market three years later, the position vacated by Jamey Watson in December, when the school posted its opening on the GISA website. The school made no announcement of a change on its website or social media outlets.
Watson went 7-25 in three seasons as head coach, taking over at his alma mater after 18 years on Jones’ staff, mostly as a defensive coordinator.
The Bibb County public schools athletics director is part of a search committee that will talk to three finalists on Monday for the vacant spot at Rutland, after having invited 10 candidates for interviews a few days ago out of about 70 applicants.
“We hope to have it at the January board meeting,” Hester said last week, talking about this Thursday’s monthly board meeting. “But I can’t promise you it’s going to happen Jan. 17. It could get pushed back to February, but we would like to get this thing done, have the right person in place to get it going at the January board meeting.”
Mark Daniel announced his resignation on Nov. 28, ending some in-season speculation that this would be his final season with the Hurricanes.
Daniel was hired by then-principal Kent Sparks, who coached with Daniel at Screven County. Sparks passed away last month after a short illness that he became afflicted with after Daniel’s decision. Daniel said he had committed to at least three years, but the Hurricanes went 2-27 in those three years, plagued by players leaving to play elsewhere or quitting, low turnout, and some discipline issues.
“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 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.
The fifth head coach takes over a program that started in 2003 and went 5-5 under Bob Davis, made the playoffs in 2007 under Lance Perlman and in 2013 under Georgia Collins. The year after the playoffs, Rutland went 2-8 and 3-7. The Hurricanes’ best two-year record is 11-10 in 2006-7 under Perlman.
The program boasted a Georgia signee in Shakenneth Williams, who battled injuries throughout his Bulldog career, ending it in the summer of 2017, before his senior year. And Rutland graduate Marquette King is likely to return to the NFL in 2019 for what will be his seventh professional year. He played four games with Denver in 2018 before suffering an injury that led to his release.
The Hurricanes are 44-117, a winning percentage of 27.3 percent. They’ve outscored opponents in only three season, and have struggled on offense from the start, averaging more than 14 points in 10 of 16 seasons.
Nevertheless, Hester goes against the conventional wisdom that Rutland has turned into something of a coach-killer, especially with a reputation of players leaving, quitting, or not coming out to try to change things.
“Let me tell you my thoughts,” said Hester, who went 4-1 against Rutland during his stint at Howard. “South Macon is kind of a community in itself. I think can go out in South Macon and Rutland and almost treat it like a school-school county deal.
“There’s a lot of history in South Macon. Many years ago, Willingham was in South Macon. A lot of pride there.”
South Macon, however, has grown, and Willingham’s final year of football was its 12th, in 1969. On the other hand, the Rams’ only head coach was the legendary Billy Henderson, who went 63-42-15.
“A lot of wins there,” Hester said. “It’s changed a little but, but it can change back.”
Last year was the first for three head coaches in Bibb County: Paul Carroll at Howard, Jeremy Wiggins at Northeast and Joaquin Sample at Central. They teamed to go 13-19, with Howard and Northeast making the playoffs.
Carroll succeeded Hester upon his appointment to the county AD job, Wiggins returned to his alma mater after a year on the Warner Robins staff after several years at Northeast under Bruce Mullen, and Sample was promoted when Jesse Hicks returned to Baldwin.
Southwest’s Joseph Dupree completed his sixth season with the Patriots in 2018, while Spoon Risper at Westside finished his 10th with the Seminoles.
It’s a quiet year for change in Central Georgia, with only Rutland in the market. It’s quiet statewide as well. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted recently that there are about 80 changes yearly, and this year’s known number was about half of that.
In fact, the only Central Georgia GHSA teams who face a new region coach in 2019 are Monticello and Putnam County in 8-AA (Jaybo Shaw is taking over at region champ Rabun County) and Lamar County in 5-AA (Spencer is still vacant), excluding a change in one 4-A subregion with area teams in the other subregion.
There have been high profile openings, like Buford (John Ford resigned after two seasons and was replaced by assistant Bryant Appling), Charlton County (Rich McWhorter left after 29 seasons to take over at Jackson County, taking his 288-79-2 record with him), and recently Grayson (Christian Hunnicutt resigned earlier this week after two seasons, citing “philosophical differences regarding personnel” with administration).