By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

Tasha Butts
Baldwin, girls basketball

Butts was among the nation’s top players as a senior at Baldwin in 1999-2000, helping the Braves to the Class 4A semifinals in 1999 and championship game in 2000, earning Gatorade state player of the year and All-American. The jersey of the program’s all-time leading scorer is retired.

Butts, who celebrated a birthday on March 10, went on to be a regular or starter all four years at Tennessee under Pat Summitt, averaging 6.4 points and 3.8 rebounds in 141 games.

Butts started all but one game as a senior, and was third in scoring with 10.4 points a game and fourth in rebounds with 5.4, the Vols going 31-4.

She started 33 of 38 games as a junior, helping the Vols go 33-5 overall and 16-0 in the SEC. She was third on the team in assists, and averaged 6.3 points and 4.8 rebounds.

Tennessee was never ranked lower than sixth in the AP poll in her four seasons on the team, and went to three Final Fours, finishing second twice.

After college, she spent a year in the WNBA and then in Europe before beginning her coaching career at Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

Butts followed with three seasons at UCLA and eight at LSU as an assistant.

If you have somebody you think people want to know about, send the info – as much as you have, including any contact info – to centralgasports@gmail.com.

If you have somebody you want to know about, send it to to centralgasports@gmail.com.

Last spring, she joined the staff at Georgia Tech.

Tony Gilbert
Central, football

A connection to the last period of sustained success at Central, Gilbert is still roaming football fields.

Gilbert was an all-starter as a senior at Central in Tom Simonton’s final year as head coach, helping the Chargers to an 8-3 record and wins over Warner Robins, and Baldwin before a 12-0 loss to Brunswick in the first round of the playoffs.

The Chargers went 8-3, 9-2, 7-3, and 6-4 in Gilbert’s four years in high school, and have only three winning seasons since.

The under-the-radar prospect signed with Georgia and embarked on a hall-of-fame caliber career, leading the Bulldogs in tackles for three years – sharing the spot with Boss Bailey as a senior - as a three-year starter following a redshirt year.

That included in 2002, when Georgia broke its long slump and won the SEC championship, finishing 13-1 and 8-1.

Joining Gilbert in Georgia’s 1998 signing class: Boss Bailey, Quincy Carter, Terrence Edwards, Maconite George Foster, Upson-Lee’s Ben Lowe, Peach County’s Regan Torbert, Tim Wansley, Will Witherspoon, and Jasper Sanks.

Among his teammates that first season: Matt Stinchomb, Antonio Cochran, Olandis Gary, Champ Bailey, and one Kirby Smart.

Gilbert, who earned his degree from UGA in 2011, remains the No. 11 tackler all-time for the Bulldogs with 328. He’s 10th with 26.5 tackles for loss.

He was drafted by Arizona in 2003, signed off the practice squad by Jacksonville and was there until 2007, mostly as a key special-teams player.

Gilbert spent two seasons in Atlanta and returned to Jacksonville in 2010 to retire.

The 2017 inductee to the Macon Sports Hall of Fame He dove right in to coaching, and covered all bases.

He returned to Georgia on the strength & conditioning taff for a year, then to Auburn in a grad assistant role.

Gilbert took a job at East Mississippi Junior College in Feb. 2013 only to join Bert Williams’ staff at GMC JC in Milledgeville in 2013.

He moved across town in Milledgeville to John Milledge Academy, where he hooked up with former Georgia teammate J.T. Wall and was the defensive coordinator.

A jump to a power-5 program followed when he became an assistant linebacker coach and defensive quality control assistant at North Carolina in 2015. He went to Central Florida as a quality control assistant in early 2018 and remains in that position, working with former UGA assistant Willie Martinez, the Knights’ assistant head coach and secondary coach.

Bobby Hughes
Macon County and Howard football

When Macon County won the 2016 GHSA Class A state title, it brought back memories in the community of success fans were used to.

There was a stretch where the Bulldogs had winning seasons in all but two years from 1989 to 2007.

C.B. Cornett got it started, turning Macon County into a statewide name with seven 10-win seasons and the 1996 state title.

Two coaches after Cornett left in 1998 to take over at Central, Bobby Hughes – who coached with Cornett at Macon County and Central, assumed the reigns in Montezuma and had Macon County rolling again, going 28-8 in his first three seasons and finishing 42-17 in five seasons.

Then he bit off a whole big chunk, becoming the first head coach at Howard, in 2008.

The grind of starting a program in a county that wasn’t having much success in or support of football, and doing so in a system that was struggling as well caught up with Hughes after three years, and he resigned with a 5-25 record to take an assistant position at Cass, serving as defensive coordinator.

He moved up to the head coaching spot with the Colonels in 2014, and went 19-41 in six seasons. Cass has had only four winning seasons – one came under Hughes, 6-4 in 2015 – since going 12-1 in 1983.

The well-liked Hughes left coaching last month to assume the newly created role of athletics coordinator at Cass.

It’s a position that has started recently in the Bartow County system to aid the athletics director position as well as a liason with several factions.