By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

There has been some quiet speculation for a month or two, but nothing happened.

Now, just like that, Dodge County has a new head football coach - its sixth since the turn of the century - and Ken Cofer has a job in Alabama.

Ray Hardin was approved last Tuesday night to replace Cofer, who is now the offensive coordinator at Cleburne High, a Class 4A school in Alabama.

Ray HardinPhoto: Nikki Barlow Dubois — **Ray Hardin**
*Photo: Nikki Barlow Dubois*

And Hardin was right on the job less than a week later with workouts beginning Monday morning at Dodge County. Workouts began, but there was a meeting to meet first.

"They walk int the door, and I'm sitting here in the office doing paperwork before we go out," Hardin said. "I watch 'em walk by, and they peek in. I walk around the corner, and I can tell they're giving me the once over.

"I would have been the same way."

Cofer told his team after its spring game against Swainsboro three weeks ago that he was leaving. His Twitter page changed its location to Heflin, Ala., and stopped listing list Dodge County as his job. But he has continued posting updates and congrats to assorted Indians.

Coverage
June 5: Bryan Way/Tattnall; Dooly County; Westfield softball; Tommy Howell/GMC; Southwest/Hardnett; John Milledge; Bleckley County
June 2: Tattnall taps Greene for girls hoops; and Northside, Houston County, Dooly County, GMC, John Milledge
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
April 26: Veterans’ Miranda moving on

There have been no indications from county board of education meetings and posted minutes - which are a month or so behind - of a change in football or athletics. The last meeting with details posted was April 12, on the May 21 meeting agenda.

Minutes of the April 12 meeting noted that Cofer was head coach and athletics director while introducing members of the region champion football team.

There has been nothing on the system's social media pages about Cofer leaving or Hardin being hired.

But Cofer - who in a message exchange with The Sports Report said "the kids, coaches, and TD Club are awesome" - is back with family in Alabama, and Hardin has his first varsity head coaching job at the age of 61.

"I believe in long engagements," Hardin laughed.

It may have been fate or inevitability that Hardin's first varsity football head coaching job would be at Dodge County.

First, he's a graduate. Second, he hasn't lived more than 15 minutes from Eastman in a long time.

"My wife laid down the law," said Hardin, has also coached in Texas, Worth County, and been a grad assistant at Mississippi. " 'You can coach wherever you want, but you're gonna have to drive from this house.' "

Third, he has coached at Dodge County with four of the Indians' last five head coaches. The only one he didn't coach with? His predecessor.

"Ray's a good guy," Cofer said in a message. "Old school, like me."

He's been on the staff of John Peacock, Greg Robinson, Lee Campbell, and Rex Hodges.

Hardin was at West Laurens for two seasons, and started working at Bleckley County under former head coach and current Dublin assistant Tracy White back in 2012.

Hardin, who also had a successful run as Dodge County's head baseball coach, spent the last three seasons as head coach and athletics director at Bleckley County Middle School, only enhancing the resume.

"People may scoff at that," Hardin said. "But I have a whole new appreciation for that life. If you do it and do it right, you're coaching everything. By the time you got home, you were exhausted."

He is grateful to the foundation set up by Cofer, namely that all of Cofer's assistants - keyed by coordinators J.D. Carter and Randy Crutchfield - are staying.

"I'm so blessed," Hardin said. "Coach Cofer assembled a pretty darned good staff, and every one of them decided to stay. I'm extremely fortunate to come in (with that)."

That was a big reason the Indians were able to work out on Monday, only days after getting a new head coach. He said about 50 players made the debut, a little less than hoped for, but not surprising considering everything of the last 15 months. Still, the late transition is off to a decent start, thanks, Hardin said, to the coaching staff.

"Those guys, they just finished spring," Hardin said " They came in when I asked them too. We've met. They're familiar with the kids. I'm just really blessed."

Houston County softball transitions with familiarity

Scott Lamb was kind of on the clock, as the father of some quality high school softball players.

He wanted to coach one of his kids if the right opportuntiy presented itself before he was ready to put the whistle away for good.

That happened in March of 2019, when the Houston County softball job was open, and Lamb took it, ostensibly ending his football coaching days.

Avery Lamb had moved on from Veterans to Valdosta State, and the senior just helped the Blazers to the NCAA Divsion II World Series this season.

Rylee was an up-and-comer at Houston County, so Lamb jumped at the chance, and stayed an extra year.

"It gave me a chance to coach my daughter her senior year," Scott Lamb said. "I told them I'd do a year after that."

Because coaching his daughter for her senior year was only part of the equation. It gave Lamb a chance to further season his successor, Houston County named alum and assistant coach April Collins, to take over.

The timing in all areas worked out.

"It was a two-year period to kind of groom April," Lamb said. "It gave (April) a little more time to get ready be a head coach. (She was) having a baby and all that."

April Collins graduated from Houston County in 2010, playing for longtime head coach Angela Crawford. Then Collins did her part in establishing the pipeline to Valdosta State. She played there for four years and helped the Blazers to the Division II national title in 2012, plus four Gulf South Conference titles.

After a year in Ware County, she returned to Houston County, and coached with Crawford, Lee Kicklighter, and Lamb, who went 49-17 in two seasons.

"She wanted to come back and take over the program at Houston County," Lamb said. "She needed a little seasoning, and I've been through the ringer a few times."

Lamb isn't quite done coaching yet. He'll remain the Bears' head wrestling coach for at least a year, probably two.

Lamb was head baseball coach at Warner Robins starting in 1997, also coaching football, and then golf. He joined the football staff at new Veterans, and eventually moved to the Bears' athletic department.

The 54-year-old has Type A diabetes, also part of the equation in turning over the softball reins. Not that he's completely found sanity and total health.

"I am umpiring now a little bit."