By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          “Joey Hiller has made it clear for years that Tattnall Square Academy is home, and Tattnall is pleased to call Coach Hiller its Director of Athletics.”

          That’s the first line of Joey Hiller’s biography on the Tattnall athletics website, updated after Hiller was promoted to athletics director in February of 2019.

          Things have changed a bit.

          Tattnall’s final baseball game this year will be Hiller’s last as head baseball coach – Tattnall alum and assistant coach Jordan Brooks will succeed him - and his contract as athletics director is not being renewed, Tattnall making that speculated-for-a-month move public on April 1 with an email to parents and faculty announcing Matt Chambless as the new head boys basketball coach – replacing Derrick Clay - and athletics director.

          Hiller confirmed his status last week to The Central Georgia Sports Report.

          “My contract for next year reads 'head softball,' 'director of development', and 'sports information director' as it pertains to the athletics website and social media,” Hiller said last week. “Jordan Brooks will be the head baseball coach here.”

          Clay, a Northeast grad who just completed his second season, won’t be back as head boys basketball coach.

          Chambless had moved from Covenant to ACE as head boys basketball coach for 2021-22. He succeeded current Tattnall head of school David Raines as the head boys basketball coach at Covenant about a decade ago.

          Chambless becomes Tattnall’s fourth boys basketball head coach in five seasons. Jeremy Mayweather succeeded Jarvis Smith for one season, and was succeeded by Clay. And he becomes the fourth athletics director since 2011, following Jeff Ratliff, Todd Whetsel, and Hiller.

          Speculation locally on Hiller and changes at Tattnall began in early March, with a variety of scenarios reportedly being considered.

          Raines declined last week to say that the changes involved contracts not being renewed.

          “Sometimes when people give something up, it doesn't necessarily mean they weren't renewed,” he said. “Sometimes they choose to do something different, depending on their stage of life. I know every time someone changes, everybody thinks, ‘Oh, they got fired.' That's not always the case.”

          He then re-stated the changes in positions – confirming the promotion of Brooks - and the addition of Chambless.

          Raines said in an email reply on the Friday (March 18) before spring break started (March 21) that the school was still working through plans for next year and he had “nothing definitive” to report, that the school hoped to finalize more during the first week back.

          The change at athletics director had been apparently finalized before that March 18 email. The school posted an ad for the position on the GISA website on March 11.

          Hiller declined to comment on the athletics director position.

He is one of two primary athletics faces of the school for the past few decades, joining longtime head football coach Barney Hester, who left the school in January of 2013 after more than 30 years and retired from athletics last December.

          Hiller told the coaching staff and his baseball team in mid-March of the school’s decision.

          He confirmed to The Central Georgia Sports Report that giving up baseball had been in his plans as he groomed Brooks to take over, as backed up by other sources. But it wasn’t so he could watch daughter Grace play softball at Clemson, as had been speculated. The 2021 Tattnall grad is unofficially redshirting this season for the third-year program that is already in the top 20. The Georgia high school softball season is in the fall, and college is in the spring.

          “Giving up baseball was never about watching my daughter play,” Hiller said. “Giving up baseball was about a young aspiring head coach who was ready to be a head coach being allowed to be a head coach here. I feel like Jordan's ready. I'm excited about the opportunity that he's going to have.”

          Hiller said that he hadn’t set a timetable to turn baseball over to Brooks, but had given him the title and duties of associate head coach before the 2021 season.

          “That's been my plan ever since Tattnall Square Academy hired Jordan Brooks, to train him to one day take over and keep it rolling like it's been rolling for the last 24, 25 years,” Hiller said. “I've intentionally put more and more responsibility on him each year to try to program him with the tools he needed to be a head coach.”

          The decision to find a new athletics director came only about three years after Hiller was named to the position, succeeding Whetsel, who left to become the head of the then-Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association, now the Georgia Association of Private and Private Schools.

          Hiller had been named assistant athletics director in October of 2018, being promoted four months later.

          Hiller spearheaded the development of a Tattnall-run athletics website, which isn’t tied to a templated high school website developed by companies for a price that some schools employ. He updates every sport’s results, as well as posting on social media.

          No other head coach at Tattnall has been at the school for even half as long as Hiller, a 1990 Stratford grad after transferring from Central. He started teach and coaching at Tattnall in 1997 - including football until the school moved from spring slow-pitch softball to fall fast-pitch - and the only other Macon private school head coach with anywhere near that much “tenure” is FPD’s Greg Moore, a Viking alum who has been at the school for more than 30 years, his career covering head football, head baseball, and head boys basketball coach as well as athletics director.

          And no matter how Hiller’s departure as head baseball coach developed, it’s a major change regarding one of the state’s most successful baseball coaches, owner of three state GHSA Class A Private titles (2016, 2018-19) in the Trojans’ first five seasons in that association after moving from the GISA starting with the 2014-15 year. The Trojans won eight GISA state titles, including in its final three years in the association.

          Tattnall, along with Stratford, Mount de Sales, and FPD are returning to the GISA and its new athletic arm, the GIAA, starting this fall.

          Hiller became the 13th coach in Georgia history last April to win his 600th game, and his record entering this week is 620-144.

          He has been Tattnall’s softball coach every season since 2001 except in 2007, and is 474-180.

          Hiller hasn’t had even a .500 season in either sport. The closest was 13-12 in his first season as softball head coach. Hiller was also part of Hester’s football staff for a few seasons.

          He joined the Macon Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021, which included nearby rival Jeff Treadway – another baseball/softball coach – of Stratford, and former Tattnall standout Brannen Veal. Tattnall volunteer assistant and former longtime major-leaguer Kevin Brown was inducted into the Macon hall in 2007.

          Brooks has some shoes to fill, regardless of how the 2022 season ends. And while the change may have been expedited, Hiller can’t help but look back and ahead.

          “I'm 50 years old,” Hiller said. “I've accomplished a heck of a lot with some good support from Tattnall Square Academy, fantastic parents and players and athletes. It's time to pass the torch.

          “Jordan Brooks is 30 years old. He has the energy, the fire, the drive that I had when I was 30 years old. If I can guarantee another 20 years like the last 20 years (of Tattnall baseball), I'll absolutely do that.”