By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Joel Ingram entered the 2021 season with belief that his job was on the line.

          It was pretty much how he entered every season as Washington County’s head football coach – whether it was after visiting the Class AAA state title games in 2013 and 2014 or going 4-7 in 2017 - adding pressure from himself to succeed while handling the pressure from the outside to succeed.

          “I’ve never been comfortable,” Ingram said. “I’ve never been complacent. I’ve never thought that I was untouchable.”

          It turns out that his job was, in fact, on the line in 2021, and now, that job is no longer his.

          Ingram told his team Tuesday morning what superintendent Rickey Edmond had told him officially a day earlier: somebody else would be coaching the Golden Hawks in 2022.

          “I told them I was no longer going to be the coach at Washington County,” Ingram said. “I was actually able to hold it together well. I got a little emotional at the end, but I got through it.”

          The school district posted the vacancy for a teacher and head football coach Thursday afternoon on its website.

          Ingram said a conversation last spring with Edmond, who took over as superintendent in the summer of 2019, gave him a feeling that his performance was under a microscope, when Edmond talked briefly about .

          “One time last spring, we had a conversation,” Ingram said. “He said some things. Sounded like something … a booster would say to a power-5 coach. Doc’s got kind of a personality like that.

          “It was all wins and losses. It wasn’t like culture, it wasn’t like leadership. I took it seriously.

          “I just thought that as long as I worked hard, I was going to stay here. I love this place.”

          In a meeting just before Thanksgiving, Ingram said he was told that Edmond thought it was time for a change, to go in a different direction, and that the neither party was to discuss the situation just yet.

          Ingram said, though, that word was soon “on the street”, long before Monday’s meeting that all but made it official.

          “That was hard, because I had to look at a lot of important people in the face,” said Ingram, who told his children about the situation after it had gotten out. He said he needed to address the team before it became official and public, too.

          It’s among the more stunning coaching changes in Central Georgia in recent years.

          Ingram has spent his entire adult life, after graduating from Jacksonville State in Alabama, in Sandersville, first starting as an assistant under Rick Tomberlin in 2000 and then as Tomberlin’s successor in 2006.

          He leaves as No. 1 at Washington County in longevity, with two more years than Tomberlin, 16. And second in wins, going 131-58-1 to Tomberlin’s 157-31. Ingam has four region championships and five trips to at least the state quarterfinals.

          The only Central Georgia head coaches who have been at their current school longer than Ingram are FPD’s Greg Moore and Brentwood’s Bert Brown (2000) and Dublin’s Roger Holmes (2002).

          The Golden Hawks went 5-5, 3-3 in GHSA Region 3-AA, which had four ranked teams – including Washington County – most of the season. The four regular-season losses were to playoff teams, including Class 4A Perry, and the Golden Hawks had a lead in the fourth quarter in each of them.

Year          All    Region     Playoffs
(Class AAA 2006-15, Class AA 2016-21)
2021           5-5    3-3             lost in first round
2020           6-5    3-3             lost in first round
2019           7-4    4-2             lost in first round
2018           10-3  4-2              lost in quarterfinals
2017           4-7    3-3             lost in first round
2016           9-3    5-1              lost in second round
2015           5-6    5-1               lost in first round
2014           14-1   6-0             lost in championship
2013           13-1   4-0             lost in championship
2012           11-2   3-1              lost in quarterfinals
2011           7-4    4-1              lost in first round
2010           7-3-1 4-1              lost in first round
2009          10-2  5-1               lost in second round
2008          8-3    4-2              lost in first round
2007          4-6    3-2
2006          11-3   5-0             lost in semifinals

          The four losses were by four, 13, five, and seven. Washington County lost 42-7 to No. 2 Thomasville in the first round of the playoffs.

          “We just had this year,” he said. “If anything could’ve went wrong, it did. We had injuries, we had gut-wrenching losses we played our guts out in.

          “Injuries, with our numbers, you lose a (middle) linebacker that’s your center and your long snapper … . But we were still fighting to the end.”

          The Golden Hawks finished 6-5 in 2020, losing by three to Jeff Davis in the first round.

          “Nobody’s happy with that,” he said of the past two seasons. “Nobody is satisfied with that. Nobody more than me and those players and those coaches are more unsatisfied with that.”

          He noted how talent runs in cycles, noting that Dublin needed a late score to beat 2-8 Josey 7-6 in 2012 just to finish 2-8 itself, and then won a state championship in 2019, both seasons under Holmes, who took over in 2002 and survived that season to win a title.

          Other area upper-level programs have hit rough spots recently. Mary Persons, who has had some legendary games with Washington County, followed a 12-1 season in 2018 with 6-6 – ending a stretch of six double-digit win seasons out of seven - and 4-5.

          Northside won the 5A title in 2014, battled to reach the 6A finals in 2018, then went 8-13 the next two years and suffered record-setting losses to rival Warner Robins, reaching the quarterfinals this year. Houston County hit a stretch of luck with talent and went 35-12 in a four-year stretch that was followed by a 21-34 stretch in five seasons and a head coach dismissal.

          Ingram had three losing seasons: 4-6 in 2007 (his second year), 4-5 in 2015 (despite outscoring opponents by 116 points), and 4-7 in 2017. The Golden Hawks went 11-6 in region play in those three seasons.

          Ingram said he hasn’t been fired, nor has he resigned, but is apparently being reassigned. He said he and Edmond had discussed other options along an assistant principal-type track.

          “You’re a little worried, a little scared about the unknown,” Ingram said. “But you get there and you find our footing and you’re OK.”

          Ingram said he hasn’t dismissed any reassignment.

          “I don’t know what my role’s going to be,” he said. “If it’s something I can make it work at Washington County, I’ll look at that. If I’m here, I’m going to support everybody here. I help anybody.

          “I care about this place. It’s the only place I’ve ever known. I’ve got a lot of blood in this place.”

          But has heard for several days from different head coaches about possible positions as an assistant.

          “I have the itch to coach, it doesn’t have to be head coach,” said Ingram, whose forte is the offensive line. “It’s a different spot for me, but it’s motivating, because I have absolutely not lost it as a damn coach.”

          Getting a grip on the past couple weeks has delayed any decision on his part.

          “I’m trying to look at it positively,” the 44-year-old said. “It’s scary. It’s painful, but I’m going to grow. I still got a lot left in me.”