Coaching carousel: Westfield football adds Robinson; Georgia College + Tattnall + Perry + John Milledge + Peach County; Northside basketball overhauled
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Rob Fitzpatrick is proving to have quite the human resources and hiring skills as a head football coach and athletics director.
Not long after resigning as head football coach at Northside, Kevin Kinsler landed at Westfield as an assistant.
Not long after resigning as the Dodge County superintendent - which he took on not long after resigning as the Indians' head coach - Rex Hodges landed at Westfield.
There, they joined Rhett Farmer, a Westfield veteran who went 45-21-1 in six seasons as a GISA head coach at Flint River and Piedmont, winning two state championships at Piedmont.
The latest addition? Former Dodge County and Houston County head coach Greg Robinson.
"I was going to retire and not do anything," the 59-year-old said. "About February, Hodges calls me, says 'You might be getting a phone call from Coach Kinsler. I said, 'Well, what about?'"
The Hornets had an opening at offensive coordinator, so Robinson met with Hodges, Kinsler, and Fitzpatrick.
"Rex said, 'Do you wanna sit on the couch or do you wanna work every day?'" Robinson said with a laugh.
Robinson was working on getting daughter Hannah Grace done at Perry and ready for Georgia Southern. As all that cleared up, well, his retirement didn't even have a chance to start.
Robinson will be offensive coordinator and coach quarterback and running backs.
Carousel Coverage
June 8: There’s a new Indian – but not so new – leading Dodge County football; Houston County softball stays home
May 24: Rutland hires a football coach, Mount de Sales has new basketball and wrestling coaches
May 19: Rutland’s Easom heading to Griffin
April 26 Coaching Carousel: Westfield/Stratford; Hawkinsville; Harden/Fullington
Kinsler is the defensive coordinator (and LBs), Robinson the offensive coordinator (and QBs and RBs), Farmer heading the defensive line and Hodges the offensive line, with Fitzpatrick overseeing the secondary.
So, the former head coaches on Fitzpatrick's staff have a combined 271-169-1 record, a winning percentage of 61.6 percent.
Of course, Fitzpatrick's debut as a head football coach was pretty good, going 7-3-1 with no spring and little summer after 3-9, and amid a pandemic.
Robinson has remained in Houston County since leaving the Bears after the 2012 season, finishing with a 17-33 mark in the period preceding Houston County's jump. He went 38-27 in a successful six-year stint at Dodge County.
Robinson and Hodges worked together at Dodge County - when both were assistants under John Peaccok and then when Robinson took over - and once at Houston County.
He just retired from Perry's staff, where he'd been since 2017. The Panthers won their first region title since 1959 in 2020.
Robinson said he and Hodges have about 15 years coaching together.
"That was big; he's already out here," Robinson said. "That was a selling point for me to get off the couch and come on to work."
Carousel? Georgia College + Tattnall + Perry + John Milledge + Peach County
Yes, all five programs are tied together with moves over the past few months.
In order:
Peach County dismissed head girls basketball coach Tamica Sneed Andrews (see related item below) just after the season in mid-February. Sneed went 84-48 in five seasons. Sneed came from Lamar County, succeeding Trojans' legend Maxine Cherry and opening with three straight 20-win seasons.
On March 9, Peach County posted that it had hired Perry head girls coach Sherry Richards, who went - according to GHSA standings - 4-8 in 2020-21 and 8-14 a year earlier.
That left an opening at Perry, and it was filled about three weeks later by John Milledge head girls coach Natasha Gainous, wife of Georgia College head men's basketball coach Mark Gainous, in early April.
She became Perry's fifth girls basketball coach since the 2016-17 season.
Mark Gainous just completed his eighth season at Georgia College, where his wife has also worked. With two children, the family is moving to somewhere between Milledgeville and Perry, although closer to Perry.
"We are moving there," Mark Gainous said in an April message, noting it's 63 miles from new house to the Centennial Center in Milledgeville. "So she and kids don't have to be on the road."
They're parents to 11-year-old Abe and 7-year-old Annie. The family has found a home about 10 minutes from Perry.
That left an opening at John Milledge, which was filled by former Georgia College men’s standout Jeremy Mayweather, leaving an opening at Tattnall, filled recently by Kurt Greene, formerly of JOnes County, Mary Persons, and Jasper County/Monticello, among other places.
The Trojans girls went 7-16 in 2019-20 and 6-14 last season.
Northside basketball overhauled
What some saw as inevitable a few months ago has become reality.
Don Hudson moved from Houston County to Northside in early March, leaving the Bears' head boys basketball coaching position for a football job coaching the Eagles' secondary.
Having improved the Bears' basketball program, Hudson now turns his attention to working on the Eagles' boys basketball program after all.
Northside athletics director and head football coach Chad Alligood tweeted Wednesday morning that Matt Simon is out as head boys basketball coach and moving to Thomson Middle School as the new athletics director, and Hudson is taking over the Northside boys basketball program.
Hudson tweeted a selfie with Northside's new gym in the background, stating that he "Got Me a New Crib Today." Simon's Twitter page also showed the change in jobs.
Hudson has worked at Statesboro, Clarke Central, Cedar Shoals. and Elbert County, his duties at different times covering football - often as a coordinator - and boys basketball, plus track.
Both Simon and Hudson are Northside and Georgia Southern grads. Simon took over the boys basketball team before the 2015-16 season, succeeding Scott Wynn, who moved into administration and is now the principal at Thomson.
It’s been a busy week around the court on Green Street, with Northside hiring a new girls basketball coach.
The girls job became vacant in late May when Ashleigh Fox was hired at Discovery. And it was filled this week with the hiring of the aforementioned Sneed.
Alligood tweeted that announcement Friday morning.
Sneed has a full Central Georgia background, playing at and graduating from Putnam County, starting on a state championship team as a junior in 1998 and state runner-up as a senior. She was an assistant at Westside as well as head coach at Weaver Middle, as well as going 21-31 in two years as head coach at Lamar County, the Trojans breaking a 17-year playoff drought in her second season.
Sneed took over for longtime Peach County head coach Cherry in 2016-17.