High school football 2023: Who's the (new) boss? It was a busy and funky offseason for Central Georgia coaching changes

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The first shoe dropped just before the 2022 season, although it was a fairly expected shoe.

          Greg Moore announced that he was retiring as head football coach, but remaining as head baseball coach and athletics director.

          The next shoe was a big one: Chad Campbell, as had been strongly rumored for several months, retired at Peach County. He dropped another shoe in less than two weeks, shocking the state's coaching world by taking the Westfield job, open when Rob Fitzpatrick resigned, ostensibly to take an assistant baseball job at Stratford under Danny Camp, who - this all sums up the offseason - coached under Fitzpatrick at Westfield.

          And so began the storm of eyebrow-raising moves, with figurative bombs dropped at major Central Georgia programs, including recent state champions Northside and Warner Robins, with 14 schools undergoing changes.

          Half of Houston County's six teams got new coaches, as did two of Bibb County's six public school teams, and three of the county's six private schools (including 8-man teams Covenant and Windsor) got new coaches.

          Five new head coaches were promoted, including Terrell Holt, by far the newest new boss, taking over at Wilkinson County only days after Keldrick Burke left in late July to become principal at East Laurens.

          The school hasn't made any public announcement, though.

          Moore, Brentwood's Bert Brown, and Campbell combined for 51 years in one job at one school.

New head coach and last job listed first, outgoing coach and new job listed second

GHSA

Central

Jarrett Laws, was HC at Salem; Joaquin Sample was released, now on Houston County staff

Crawford County

Dusty Jump, promoted; Craig Puckett took over as athletics director

Dodge County

Thomas Smith, was HC at Wheeler County; Ray Hardin retired

GMC Prep

Bobby Rhoades, was an assistant at Pepperell; Lee Coleman left for Salem, but left after about a month for Lakeview Academy

Northside

Ben Bailey, was offensive coordinator at Peach County; Chad Alligood left to become athletics director at Jones County

Peach County

Marquis Westbrook, was HC at Warner Robins; Chad Campbell resigned, now HC at Westfield

Putnam County

Joel Harvin, was head coach at Early County; Shaun Pope retired from coaching

Rutland

Anthony Williams, was defensive coordinator at Burke County; Jarmarcus Johnson resigned, is coaching at Mary Persons

Twiggs County

Patrick Wray, promoted; Irade Perry

Wilkinson County

Terrell Holt, promoted; Keldrick Burke resigned in late July, named principal at East Laurens

GIAA

Brentwood

Adam Lord, promoted; Bert Brown, retired

Covenant

Matt Murphy, was assistant at Creekside Christian; Chris Oxford, resigned, now on Tattnall's staff

Westfield

Chad Campbell, was HC at Peach County; Rob Fitzpatrick, resigned, now on baseball staff at Stratford

Windsor

Dylan Bass, promoted; Randy Grace retired