Coaching Carousel: Dodge County's Rex Hodges resigns; changes at Hawkinsville and Dooly County, and around the state
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Rex Hodges wasn’t one to make a big deal out of much.
He’s not on social media, he’s not one to go crazy at officials, nor a big booster buddy, but intense yet almost low-key on Friday night.
So, naturally, it was pretty quietly nearly two weeks ago that Hodges turned in his resignation as head football coach and athletics director at Dodge County.
“No, I didn’t tell a lot of folks,” Hodge said Monday night. “But word will still get around.”
Not that it did, with barely a mention on Twitter, nothing on Facebook, nor on the state’s prime high school message board at 247sports.com. And the county’s board of education website has no information about meetings, although Hodges made the move between monthly meetings.
And, naturally, it wasn’t a long, convoluted process for Hodges, who turns 59 on Thursday.
“I guess right before I did it,” he said of the decision. “I’ve never made a decision until at least a month after the season. … I had been thinking about it a little bit. Then it got to where I was been thinking about it a little bit more. I felt like, I guess, if you’re thinking about it that much, you probably need to go and do something.”
Hodges had long ago passed the 30-year mark needed for being fully vested, and is at 37 year in the state public school system.
“I’ve been doing it a pretty good while,” Hodges said. “And I’ve enjoyed it. I just thought … We’ve been fortunate enough to kind of go out with pretty good records, which you don’t always get to do. I’ve been blessed with that.
Hodges leaves with a 71-60 record in 12 seasons as a head coach at Toombs County, Bacon County, and Dodge County. He went 60-31 with the Indians in eight seasons, and is one of only three coaches in school history to win a region title, joining John Peacock, who died last July, and Jerry Raines.
And Hodges – who admitted he may not necessarily be done coaching - departs as the second-winningest coach in wins, only nine behind Peacock.
Among Dodge County head coaches with at least three seasons, Hodges is fourth with a winning percentage of 65.9. Jerry Raines (22-11, 1974-76) and Larry Green (20-10, 1978-80) are barely ahead.
And considering the Indians have won at least nine games in three of the last four seasons, Hodges’ percentage was likely to rise and he’d have pulled that much closer to Peacock, after whom the football field is named.
Hodges followed Lee Campbell (2008-10) and Greg Robinson (2002-2007), who came after Peacock, the Indians’ head coach from 1992-2001).
The graduate of Jenkins County and Tennessee-Martin started his coaching career in middle school at Vidalia, then went to Thomas County Central (during Charlie Ward’s time). After Toombs County, he was an assistant at Swainsboro, and then joined Peacock’s staff at Dodge County and was retained by Greg Robinson.
Hodges then went to Houston County with Robinson for three years, and returned to Dodge County in 2011.
“The people of Dodge County have been just great to us the whole time, and it’s a great place to live,” said Hodges, the father of three children and now four grandchildren. “A lot of good times, that’s for sure. I will always appreciate them.
“We didn’t win every game, but we won most of ‘em.”
More changes
A little farther south, Hawkinsville is looking for a coach to replace Will Conner, out – as of early March –after three seasons of 4-6, 2-8, and 4-6. The last time Hawkinsville went three straight years without a playoff trip was in the mid-1990s when they were four years with no postseason.
The next coach will be Hawkinsville’s fifth since 2000.
Ashley Harden is back in Central Georgia after one year (2-8) at Stewart County, which followed one year at Northeast (5-4), which followed two years at Twiggs County (12-11), which followed two years at Jenkins County (7-13), which followed three years at Butler (15-16).
Harden takes over at Dooly County for Corey Jarvis, who left after one season for Lithia Springs.
Around the state, the latest big news is a former Lamar County coach replacing the former Lamar County coach who replaced him at, well, Lamar County.
Jason Strickland went from Lamar County to Fitzgerald to Pierce County, and now takes over at Ware County for Franklin Stephens, who spent two years following Strickland at Lamar County before heading to Ware County, where he was eventually joined by, yes, his successor at Lamar County, Jamie Abrams.