Edwards going from repeat champions at Warner Robins to rebuilding at Houston County as the Bears' new head coach

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Santa is going to have some work to do in the Edwards household in Warner Robins.

          Saturday, Jeremy Edwards helped Warner Robins to an unprecedented second straight state football championship. Monday, Edwards was part of the parade interviewing for the vacation Houston County head football coaching job.

          And a little more than 24 hours after he walked out of that meeting, Edwards was approved Tuesday afternoon by the Houston County Board of Education as Houston County’s sixth head coach since the program’s birth in 1991.

          No, he didn’t wear last year’s championship ring into the meeting.

          “I did the best I could,” he said.

          Ryan Crawford was let go a month ago after going 21-34 in five seasons. Houston County all-time is, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, 172-166-1 in 31 seasons, with one region title.

          Edwards was one of almost a dozen candidates spending Monday interviewing, and no doubt didn’t need much introduction.

          He spent 37 minutes in the meeting with those representing the team that had lost 122-33 in the last three meetings with Warner Robins.

          “I just felt like it was time for a new challenge,” said Edwards, whose wife works at Lakejoy Elementary. “I’d been a coordinator the majority of my career. I just felt like it was time to try something different.

          “The support over there is phenomenal. It was just too good to be true.”

          Edwards said Houston County was the first head coaching job he’s applied for. He noted how the county allows for new head coaches to bring in coordinators, so he’ll be joined by Warner Robins co-workers Jordan Singletary as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach and Kelly Chastain – cousin to former Demon head coach Mike, now at Jones County – as offensive coordinator.

          “That was big,” Edwards said. “I didn’t have to go into it by myself.”

          Edwards’ latest move is the easiest. He just changes buildings.

          He graduated from Dacula in 1998 – and always remembered the joy of the job his head coach Kevin Maloof had -  and got his first bachelor’s at Georgia Southern. He went into sales for a few years, in licensed sports apparel.

          “We sold a lot of mainly (things) like pajamas that were licensed,” he said. “I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

          He went back to school and got another bachelor’s, at Kennesaw State, then his master’s at Alabama and finally getting his specialist degree from Jacksonville State.

          Then he began something of a state criss-cross, vertically, from metro Atlanta to Cairo to Warner Robins, taking something from each stop that led to the prolific offense leading Warner Robins to consecutive state championships for the first time in its storied history.

          Edwards was a volunteer assistant at Kennesaw Mountain, then went to Berkmar as a receivers coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator. A year as quarterbacks coach at North Gwinnett followed, and it was a spark.

          “The biggest impact on me was when I went to North Gwinnett and worked for Bob Sphire,” Edwards said. “I was only there a year, but it kinda catapulted me from there.”

          The Bulldogs were amid a run of eight 10-win seasons under Sphire, who went 110-28 in 11 seasons with five region titles.

          A year at Northview and three at North Paulding as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach followed. He was the Region 5-5A assistant of the year in 2013, and his ability to groom quarterbacks grew. Chase Noonan was a two-time all-stater, and Kyle Banks led the state in passing one season, including a 560-yard Friday night in 2014.

          Edwards was mighty busy a week after Banks’ big game, the Wolfpack losing 72-46 to Hillgrove on a night of 166 snaps, 85 called by the North Paulding offensive coordinator.

          North Paulding cracked 50 points 10 times in four season, including during a 4-7 and 3-8 season, both ending in playoff trips.

          He then zipped past Central Georgia to Cairo, and helped the Syrupmakers to a 29-9 mark in three years with a quarterfinal trip.

          But his father in law had been fighting cancer and began to digress. Mike Chastain left Warner Robins for Jones County, and new head coach Marquis Westbrook needed an offensive coordinator.

          The timing, personally and professionally, worked.

          “He was getting sick,” Edwards said of his father in law. “Being in Cairo, my wife was making that trek several times a month. This was a way to get closer to her family, to him. That was a big part of it.”

          Her father Jimmy died in August.

          The football part was pretty attractive.

          “They had already played for it two years in a row,” Edwards said of the Demons’ state title trips. “And to be honest, when I met Mr. (principal Chris) McCook and Coach Westbrook, I mean, they’re just genuine people. They sold it.”

          Throw in the school system, and Edwards was in. And now, the same school system is keeping him in it.

          The Bears return freshman quarterback Antwann Hill, cousin of former Houston County and Macon County offensive lineman Trey Hill, now in the NFL by way of Georgia. He completed 46.2 percent of his passes for 1,027 yards, eight touchdowns and nine interceptions.

          The Bears’ top two wideout pass-catchers are back. Kale Woodburn and Khilil Quinn are sophomores who teamed for 27 catches for 422 yards and four touchdowns.

          Standout running back and region player of the year Simeon Askew and his 1,635 yards and 12 touchdowns are gone, but underclassmen Ryan Taleb and Jaylen Ware – 82 carries, 371 yards – are back.

          Of the 20 players on the Houston County roster with offensive lineman numbers, 11 are underclassmen, but there will be some rebuilding with the losses of Region 1-6A offensive lineman of the year Chandler Strong, first-team all-region pick Zac Lyle and second-teamer Chris Nobles.

          The 41-year-old husband to Brittany and father to Anslee-Paige, Brookelynn, and Kendall was 4-16 in his first two years as an offensive coordinator, at Berkmar and Northview. Since then, he’s led the offense for teams going 95-34, including 69-13 the last six seasons.

          “It’s all helped mold me,” Edwards said. “I’m really fortunate and blessed with the people I’ve been around.”