By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Bryce Robinson has been athletics director at Upson-Lee for three years, and had the same position at Harris County for seven.

This spring is about the least fun he’s had in that position.

Since February:

Two assistant football coaches – one the boys track head coach, the other heading baseball - gave notice that they were taking other jobs.

Then there was the boys basketball premature playoff exit, followed by two boys basketball assistants getting other jobs.

As did the girls basketball and volleyball head coach. Then came the decision of boys basketball head coach Darrell Lockhart to leave his alma mater.

And so on.

“The most I’ve ever had to replace in one year was two head coaches, and that was it,” Robinson said of his previously busiest hiring season, at Harris County.

The count this spring at Upson-Lee is seven. And about that many assistants.

“When you get to the first three or four, you think, ‘OK, we’ll figure it out,’” Robinson said. “Then you get up to seven …”

Assistant basketball coaches Christopher Jones and Hamilcar Kelly – who were also football assistants - left for head basketball jobs at Taylor County and Fitzgerald.

Also headed to Fitzgerald, head boys track coach and football defensive coordinator John Gamble.

Then Brandon Ingram, the Knights’ girls basketball and volleyball head coach, announced he was taking a job at Seminole County, not far from home.

“I get that,” Robinson said. “I still cuss him every day, but I get that.”

Boys soccer coach Matt Bentley decided this would be his final season, after 17 as a head coach, as he moved to become an assistant principal at Upson-Lee.

Then the biggest shoe dropped: boys basketball coach Darrell Lockhart was leaving for Valdosta.

Baseball coach Jonathan Thompson, also the football offensive coordinator, is bound for Lee County. And softball coach Michael Kirby is moving to elementary-school administration in Upson County.

So that head-coach tally: Baseball, boys basketball, girls basketball, boys soccer, volleyball, boys track, and softball.

Robinson admitted filling the volleyball position is a little tougher than the others.

“I’ve got girls coming to me every day,” he said. “ ‘I’m working, ladies. That’s all I can do. I’m working.’”

The next board meeting is Tuesday night, having been moved Thursday night from, well, Thursday night. Robinson hopes to have approved about half of the overall openings.

According to sources, the Knights will go back in history with Stephany Raines taking over girls basketball.

Raines was the Class AA player of the year at Upson High and led the Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season and the state title in 1988.

She is a two-time inductee to the Thomaston-Upson Hall of Fame, as an individual and as part of that title team

She’s a Mercer hall of famer, starring for the Bears in the early 1990s under then-head coach Lea Henry. Raines started coaching at Mercer, and then joined Henry at Georgia State.

After 10 seasons with the Panthers, she became head coach at Savannah College of Art and Design in 2005. The school ended the basketball programs in 2008-09, and she entered athletics administration as an assistant athletics director for four years and then athletics director for three years.

Also, Montgomery County’s Christopher Owens is the choice for boys basketball, Owens going 82-24 (according to GHSA records) 62-27 the past four years, including 29-3 and Class A Public state runner-up in 2017-18.

Jones returning to alma mater, Stratford, to coach soccer

Iain Jones is in the Stratford boys soccer record books as a player, a goalkeeper, back in the late 1990s.

And he coached the Stratford girls program to a GISA state title before moving to Mount de Sales in 2005.

He’s back.

Stratford announced Jones’ hiring earlier this week to replace Ian Hayley, who had been in the position since 2014. The Eagles finished 4-6-1 this season and didn’t make the GHSA Class A Private postseason. They went 1-1 last year in the Class A – public and private – state tournament.

Jones went 208-57-10 at Mount de Sales, with three GISA state titles and three runner-up finishes. The Cavs went 15-3 last season, and lost 1-0 to Class A Private finalist Wesleyan.

Dodge County’s Cotton to Southwest

Two area boys basketball programs are again in transition.

Dodge County’s boys are looking for their fourth head coach since the 2014-15 season, because Southwest has hired its third head coach in three seasons.

Robert Cotton has been hired – upon Bibb County board approval at its meeting next week – to succeed Darrin Clark at Southwest. Clark had been an assistant for several years, and went 10-16 in his lone season as head coach, in 2018-19.

Cotton went 44-35 in three seasons at Dodge County, coming from Wayne County after going 64-42 at Americus-Sumter, with a year at Crisp County as well.

Around Central Georgia

After one year away from Central Georgia, Anthony Webb is back.

Webb left Hancock Central, his alma mater, after 14 years to take over at Worth County in 2018-19, but has been hired at Baldwin to succeed Buck Harris, now at Jones County. He’ll be recommended at the n

Worth County went 16-11 last season, 7-2 in Region 1-AAA, and won its first-round GHSA tournament game last season.

Webb was an assistant at Hancock Central for two years before taking over. In recent years, he was also in administration as an assistant principal and middle-school principal.

The Bulldogs won three region titles and made four Final Four trips under Webb, winning the state title in 2008. …

Peach County welcomes its third head boys basketball coach in three seasons, with John Gordon coming to town from Westside-Augusta.

Billy Sellers took over the Trojans for 2018-19 when Prelvis Paster suffered a stroke before the season. Paster had been Peach County’s head coach for only two years. The Trojans were often competitive but struggled to a 3-22 season in 2018-19.

Gordon spent one season at Westside-Augusta as head coach, going 8-18 last year, 7-9 in 4-AA. He had been promoted from Pine Hill Middle School after one season, and has AAU experience.