Jones County’s Chastain and Alligood resign days after answering challenges at a called board meeting following social media flurry (Updated: 5:15 p.m.)
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Updated: 5;15 p.m., Feb. 3 with clarification (see below)
A little more than a week ago, Mike Chastain was defending himself and a staff personnel move, and Chad Alligood was defending himself about business decisions.
They were the focal points of part of a called meeting of the Jones County Board of Education on January 23 to address issues initially brought forth in a Facebook post a week earlier from Jamey Huckeba, the former owner of Team Sports on Shurling Drive who then became an employee of BSN Sports, a team equipment and apparel company. His post dealt mostly with Alligood’s management of the athletics department and a perceived declining usage of local businesses.
Feelings were vented and explanations – some spoke on leadership in the county district - offered in the meeting of nearly 40 minutes, with no votes or resolutions.
Friday afternoon, Chastain and Alligood officially resigned their positions, as did a number of Jones County assistant coaches.
Word began to spread publicly around 4 p.m Friday that both had resigned, although it wasn’t clear if they were allowed to resign rather than be considered fired, and that football assistants were also leaving.
Text messages to Chastain and Alligood sent around 5 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday as well as Saturday morning emails have been unanswered, as was an email to Jones County High principal Dennis Woolfolk Saturday morning and Monday morning.
The moves were unable to be officially confirmed by The Central Georgia Sports Report over the weekend, but Chastain confirmed the move Monday morning to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The meeting was ostensibly called to discuss the district opting out of House Bill 581, which deals with homestead exemptions. That part of the meeting was basically empty, according to the Jones County News, filling up for the comments portion of the meeting.
The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 11.
Each of the 11 speakers – including former Jones County superintendent and principal Chuck Gibson, former superintendent William Mathews, and dismissed baseball coach Mike Paulk - was allotted three minutes.
Chastain was Jones County’s winningest coach with a 56-20 record, taking over the Greyhounds after going 29-12 in three seasons at Warner Robins. Chastain succeeded Justin Rogers, who went 45-15 in Gray.
Alligood, a Wilkinson County grad, was 21-15 at Northside’s head coach when he resigned in Dec. of 2022, taking the Jones County AD job less than a week later. He was also Northside’s athletics director.
Huckeba’s Jan. 18 Facebook post – which had nearly 180 comments as of Monday morning – addressed issues dealing with Alligood when Huckeba still owned Team Sports, and then regarding bids and communication when Huckeba moved to BSN Sports. He also posted a list of counters to Alligood’s charges on Jan. 25.
The meeting was recorded and posted on Facebook.
It also addressed the firing of defensive coordinator Will Conner. The Hawkinsville alum took over at his alma mater in 2016, two years after the Red Devils won the GHSA Class A state title under head coach David Daniell. Daniell resigned to move into administration, and is the Pulaski County athletics director as well as.
Conner went 10-22 in three seasons, and was replaced by Shane Williamson in 2019. Conner then went as an assistant to Crisp County, Bleckley County. He joined the Jones County staff in the spring of 2023, along with five other new assistants.
“ “As the days went on, I felt like I kept losing trust in my right-hand man. ”
Conner was named a defensive coordinator of the year for 2024 by a social media outlet run by a former coach now in the human resources field. In what was considered a rebuilding year, Jones County went 10-2 (getting a win courtesy of forfeits by Stockbridge) and was close to pulling off a huge upset of Marist in the playoffs.
The reaction to that move on the post of Huckeba – the first of 11 scheduled speakers - and others addressing his post was strong, and Chastain addressed it, in no uncertain terms, in the meeting.
“Through Facebook and all that kind of stuff, I feel like my integrity and character have been attacked and I want to make sure uh everybody understands I would never ever disclose any of this information,” he said. “I feel like it has to be disclosed.”
He noted how important trust is in running a program, between coaches and with coaches and players. That had apparently eroded with Chastain and Conner.
“I have had issues with Coach Conner for over a year now,” said Chastain, reading from a sheet of paper. “We had a talk before, about a year ago, but it has been evident that Coach Conner is not happy working with my coaching staff, is not happy. It's evident that he is not willing to comply with my request.
“As the days went on, I felt like I kept losing trust in my right-hand man. Meanwhile, he has been going around telling other coaches how unhappy he is coaching here. Coach Conner complained to many people throughout the school about the way I run the program and me as a person.”
Clarification
Mike Chastain said a Hawkinsville native called him to discuss Will Conner’s time on the staff of Cam Black at Hawkinsville.
It was incorrectly worded earlier in The Central Georgia Sports Report’s story that Black had called Chastain. Black did not call Chastain about Conner.
The Central Georgia Sports Report apologizes to Chastain and Black for the error.
He said Conner expressed such thoughts more than once to Woolfolk and Alligood, neither of whom specifically addressed this situation when they spoke, reiterating that such decisions are those of a head coach.
Chastain posted the opening for defensive coordinator, and said he heard from a Hawkinsville native who discussed “how much he disliked Coach Conner - that call was on speakerphone, and Coach Alligood heard it, too – for stabbing coach Cam Black … in the back.”
Black was Hawkinsville’s head coach from 2008-12, and has coached at Crisp County, Peach County and Hawkinsville since then. Black did not call Chastain.
“I believe that Will Conner was trying to set himself up to try and become the head coach here at Jones,” Chastain said. “I just cannot understand the reason for telling our AD and the principal how unhappy you are without every coming to me and expressing any of that.”
He said Conner failed to deal with or address several situations Chastain delegated. Chastain said it was his decision alone, and he told Alligood and Woolfolk afterward about the move.
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Alligood followed Chastain, and began by reiterating that team personnel decisions were each head coach’s hands, not his. Then he addressed the post and reaction of Huckeba, who spoke earlier in the meeting.
“I do not participate in gossip or juvenile social media platforms like Facebook,” Alligood said, reading from a statement. “For the last week, my character and integrity have been challenged by a select group unlike any I’ve experienced in my 30 years in this profession.”
He went into why decisions were made by himself, Woolfolk, and superintendent Charles Lundy. Woolfolk succeeded Lance Rackley – now in the Monroe County schools system – as principal in July of 2023. Rackley served as the school’s interim athletics director after Barry Veal resigned that position in the spring of 2022 to take the same one at Stratford.
Alligood resigned as Northside’s head football coach and athletics director in December of 2022 and took the Jones County job less than a week later.
“I was hired to put financial accountability and the athletic department by Mr. Rackley,” Alligood said. “Before I took over, there very few if any checks and balances on money collected, gates deposits, and booster clubs. Most things were done with cash with very little oversight. Most of this is in violation of the PSC (Professional Standards Commission) and accounting audits.”
Alligood said the department has cleaned up those issues with accounting audits, among other things, and no longer allowing coaches “to be on booster club accounts” where they had “free access to all funds. This is a major PSC violation and all coaches and administrators who took part in this should have been reported to the PSC.”
He then addressed the charges by Huckeba, noting that when he was hired, he saw a need for restructuring how teams and vendors did business, noting that the school got invoices with no purchase order numbers and multiple billings of the same invoice.
“I was hired to put financial accountability and the athletic department by Mr. Rackley,. ... Before I took over, there very few if any checks and balances ...”
“In the past booster clubs were allowed to use the school tax exempt number with team sports,” Alligood said, “which is a major tax fraud and illegal liability for the school system.”
He said coaches unanimously agreed in the spring of 2024 to leave Team Sports, and noted that his dealings with BSN Sports while at Northside were not good ones, so he sought other vendor choices, eventually settling with Baker Sports, based in Jacksonville, Fla.
“We chose Baker because (of) the service, and deals our individual head coaches would get for their sport and comp money for them to use with their teams,” Alligood said. “The AD gets zero from this agreement.”
He said Huckeba “sent a nasty email to me” about the decision.
“I will never be bullied or pressured to make decisions for someone else's personal gain,” Alligood said. “I’m hired to make sure the Jones County school system is doing things by the law and ethically correct.”
Woolfolk was the schools head boys basketball coach from 2010-2017, resigning to move into administration. He didn’t delve too much into specifics regarding either situation addressed by Chastain or Alligood.
Woolfolk invited people to call him to address any issues that can help make Jones County High better, and to attend more school events, including monthly council meetings.
“At our last school council meeting,” he said, “only one community member was present.”
He said his support of Chastain and Alligood “is no different than any other administration before me at Jones County High School” and that personnel decisions “are prayed upon and presented respectfully”
He again encouraged more public involvement in the school system’s academics and other extracurricular activities, as well as school board meetings and utilizing other ways of involvement.
“Your presence and voice are needed, and appreciated more than anything,” he said. “And I do say this from the bottom of my heart. I am a Greyhound. My children are Greyhounds. more than anything I pray is that our Jones County community continues to support the entire school district effort to provide the best educational environment for our children.”