Wednesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

 

The Scoreboard is in The Latest Coverage, as is Honor Roll and Latest Signings

 

Jones County has a new coach not long after losing its old coach

          Hump Day was a good one for Jones County athletics director Barry Veal. He interviewed Mike Chastain for the vacant head football coach job, offered the job, and Chastain accepted. All that’s left is approval by the board of education at a specially called meeting Friday morning.

          In The Latest Coverage.

 

Mercer’s Gary names staff

          The new men’s basketball staff at Mercer brings a collection of diverse resumes and backgrounds to the regime of Greg Gary.

One former colleague at Purdue, an assistant coach in the Southland Conference and one in the Atlantic 10 Conference will join Gary and the Bears.

          D.J. Byrd, who will be the director of operations, spent two seasons with Gary at Purdue, and is from Indiana. Kim Lewis spent the last seven years on the staff at Richmond and has been at three of Gary’s former stops (McNeese State, Tulane, and Duquesne).

          Bobby Kummer has been a Division I coach for nearly two dozen years after playing at Charlotte. And Juan Cardona, of Harlem, Ga., graduated from Middle Georgia College in 1996 and followed an international coaching career with three years as head coach at Miami (Fla.) Christian, winning two straight Class AA state titles.

 

Dodge County hires a familiar name

          Ken Cofer wasn’t gone from Dodge County for long.

          He left Eastman after three seasons as an assistant to take over at Wilcox County, but he’s back with the Indians has head coach.

          Cofer replaces Rex Hodges, one of the program’s three most successful coaches, who resigned a few weeks ago.

          He led Wilcox County to its first playoff trip since 2012 in 2018, the Patriots going 5-6, with a 20-19 first-round loss at Trion. That was the fourth loss by single digits.

          The Jacksonville State grad is 48-31 as a head coach at Cook, Bacon County, and Wilcox County.

 

Falcons get their 2019 schedule

          Atlanta opens the season at Minnesota, and welcomes the Eagles in the home opener.

 

Braves Report

          Atlanta’s offense was paltry, and the bullpen walked in the game-winner in a 3-2 10-inning loss before only 22,356 at SunTrust Park.

Box

Next: Thursday, vs. Arizona, 12:10 p.m., FSSE; Friday, at Cleveland, 7:10 p.m., FSSO; Saturday, at Cleveland, 4:10 p.m., FSSO; Sunday, at Cleveland, 7:05 p.m., ESPN.  

Walks painful

Bunt, bad defense painful

 

Around/About Central Georgia

Mercer women sign former Virginia Tech forward

          Sierra Votaw played last year at Eastern Florida State (junior) College.

 

Mercer baseball trip to VMI altered

          The Bears and Keydets will now play a Thursday doubleheader and single game on Friday. The series will be on the SoCon Digital Network.

          Mercer then visits Florida A&M on Tuesday before returning home next weekend for a series against second-place ETSU. The Bears are 17-20 overall, 5-7 in conference play and tied for fifth with Western Carolina, Furman, and VMI.

 

Georgia College headed to PBC golf tournament

          Houston County alum Hilton Beck is in the Bobcats lineup.

 

Around/About Georgia

Georgia Southwestern names women’s coach

          Justin Payne is the new head women’s basketball coach at Georgia Southwestern, coming from the staff at Division I Nicholls State.

          He replaces Kelly Britsky, who resigned in March after 12 seasons after going 119-200.

Veterans grad Kya Cochran will be a junior next season.

 

Georgia and Clemson played baseball for how long?

Crean gets the official signings of big targets

Is this Dan Quinn’s final schedule?

Tech DBs like change in coverage