By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Stability in the high school world of coaching is the exception rather than the rule, and FPD has had more than average.

But that average is dropping with the resignation of longtime and highly successful soccer coach Joshua Trieste.

His final game as FPD’s girls coach was a heartbreaker, Tuesday’s home 3-2 loss to Brookstone in a GIAA Class 4A semifinal, preventing the Vikings from playing in Friday night’s state championship at Stratford, host to this year’s finals.

He told the ateam a few weeks ago to avoid end-of-season distractions, and that season ended a game earlier than hoped for.

“It was pretty incredible,” Trieste said. “We had a whole bunch of alumni that came back. It was my last home game, and I had no idea they were going to be there.

“We got all done with the game and the postgame in the locker room. I come out, and there’s still a couple hundred people there, clapping and cheering. It was good for the team, it was good for me.

“We’ve got good parents, got good kids. They made it a little (easier) to walk off the field after a loss.”

Trieste has been at FPD since 2002, racking up GHSA girls state titles in 2011, 2012, and 2018, to go with the 2007 and 2023 girls GISA championship. The Vikings’ boys have a state runner-up finish in 2008.

The girls won at least 20 games six times in his 20 years. In a total of 43 seasons between the boys and girls, Trieste had two losing seasons. The girls lost a max of four games only three times.

Trieste went 240-142-15 with the boys and 314-31-7 with the girls, for a total of 554-173-22.

The Tattnall grad has been a community coach from the start, taking a different route than high school-college-coaching career.

Trieste’s family bought a soccer store, so he went to work there, and eventually got through a few years of college, taking businesses classes.

Then he started coaching the lower levels at Tattnall, and moved up as an assistant, and then took a spot on FPD’s boys staff as an assistant.

One head coach departure later, in 2002, Trieste took over the top job. He became the girls head coach in 2007.

He said as he approached 50, which he hit last fall, he started thinking about something different, and finally made that call.

“I kind of look it every year, see where my body is, where I am personally, and what’s going on,” Trieste said. “Did a lot of praying about it. You get that voice in your head, you kind of start assessing things, and it didn’t’ go away.”

He and wife Christy have been married nearly 28 years, and are parents to Betsy (senior) and David (freshman).

May 6: Coaches Carousel: From Warner Robins to Veterans, Tracy Fendley back on bench; FPD veteran Spear leaving softball; Roundup: Jones County, Perry, Dodge County

May 4: Fitzpatrick/Stratford softball, Brian Brown/Dublin baseball, around the area (John Milledge softball, Belflower/Tattnall, Greene/Stratford)

May 2: Dickey back on bench at Brentwood; Bleckley County plucks from Dublin, Warner Robins; Houston County's new head girls hoops coach

April 22: Tattnall girls basketball, Twiggs County football, Veterans girls basketball
April 10: Jones County announces new head basketball coaches
March 26: From Stratford to Piedmont, from Jones County to Northside (times 2), Danny Camp and ChoRhonda and Buck Harris moving
March 2: Macon County hires a familiar face
Feb. 16: Howard has a new head football coach who has been well tested on high school and college levels
Feb. 8: GMC promotes from within
Jan. 10: Baldwin goes just down the road for its newest head football coach, who has a winning background as a player and coach
Jan. 4: Paul Carroll is on the move, but not far, leaving Howard and taking over at Stratford

“I’ve got a theatre daughter and a band son,” he said. “And they’re both very good at those things. I’ve got some time to be a dad more.”

Trieste doesn’t dismiss returning to the game, but sounded doubtful.

“Not to demean anybody else’s program, but there really couldn’t be a better situation than FPD’s given me,” he said. “I’ve got a super supportive administration, got great facilities. They really have trusted me with decision-making and staffing. I really have had kind of an open sketchbook to do the program however I wanted.

“It’s not like I could even imagine something better somewhere else.”

Trinity Christian brings Lane back to Central Georgia

In Bruce Lane’s 35 seasons a head coach, a third have been in Central Georgia, including a few at his alma mater, John Milledge.

He’s back.

Lane took over as athletics director and head coach at Trinity Christian in Dublin early this year, succeeding Jed Marsh, released after a three-year run of 6-25.

Marsh landed in March at Citizens Christian in Douglas, a GIAA Class A program.

Lane is a John Milledge and Georgia College graduate, who has been a head coach in three states, with four stints in Central Georgia.

He went 24-32-1 at Monroe Academy, 3-7 at GMC, and 42-18 at John Milledge, where he coached current head coach J.T. Wall. He went 3-9 in 2019 at Westfield.

Lane’s Southland teams went 7-14 in two seasons, and Augusta Christian went 17-6 in two seasons in the GISA before the school moved to the South Carolina Independent School Association.

Overall, he went 63-22 with Augusta Christian, winning a state title in South Carolina in 2005, finishing as state runner-up the next two seasons.

From 2009 until 2019, he was a head coach at Fort Bend Christian Academy in Sugar Land, Texas, Wilson Hall in Sumter, S.C., and Rosehill Christian in Tomball, Texas.

Wilson Hall won the SCISA state title in 2013. Rosehill Christian was a finalist among private schools for the Touchdown Club of Houston sportsmanship award in 2018, the Eagles going 9-2. Lane went 29-24 at Rosehill.

Lane went 125-102 in Georgia associations at Bethlehem Christian, Westfield, Augusta Christian (counting only its two years in the GISA with Lane coaching), Southland, John Milledge, GMC, and Monroe Academy.

He went 29-16 in four seasons at Bethlehem Christian before resigning in January to take the Trinity Christian job. The Crusaders’ last winning season was 7-5 in 2018 under the late Jimmy Fields, who went 25-39 in six seasons.

Warner Robins football adds assistants

The HR department with Warner Robins football has had a busy month or so.

LaBrandon Hudson has been promoted to defensive coordinator, replacing Chris Reeves, who retired and is now at Bleckley County.

Logan Winkles was defensive coordinator at Upson-Lee, his alma mater before signing with N.C. State. Also the Knights’ wrestling coach and former standout a little more than a decade ago, Winkles will coach inside linebackers with the Demons.

Demarcus Davis moves from several years at Mary Persons, where he was a co-defensive coordinator last year. The former Mary Persons’ defensive standout who played at West Georgia will coach cornerbacks.