Jones County has a new athletics director, and Charles David sure knows his way around Greyhound athletics
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The winter and spring of 2025 have been like pretty much any other for Jones County High athletics.
And Tuesday night, the tumult of the winter and spring found some calm.
The Jones County Board of Education made Jones County principal Dennis Woolfolk a happy man by approving Charles David as the new athletics director.
The desire of many Jones County sports constituents to have somebody with a solid Jones County history and background was certainly met with the transfer and promotion of David, who had been the Clifton Ridge Middle School athletics director.
The Washington County grad got his Bachelor’s at Georgia College, Masters at Georgia Southern, and Specialist at West Georgia, beginning work in Jones County in 1996.
Jones County principal Dennis Woolfolk had to wait more than an hour of the meeting to make the introduction after David was approved by the board in executive session.
“When I started at Jones County, I had someone that took me under their wings over at Clifton Ridge, and ever since then, our relationship has been a brotherhood—not just colleagues—it’s gone beyond that,” Woolfolk said. “Now I have the honor and blessing, pleasure of continuing that brotherhood with Charles David coming to be our athletic director.
“I’m very proud, blessed to present him to you all. He’s going to do a wonderful job. He’s always done a wonderful job, and he’ll continue.”
David noted the breadth of his coaching background, including football, since his arrival.
“I am just super proud, and excited to start and get this thing going, and just kind of carry on what we’ve been doing,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of great mentors in the 29 years. I’ve been under a lot of great administrators. I’ve been under a lot of great people who I’ve seen make great decisions and do a lot of good things for this county.
“I hope I can do the same thing for you guys, and make you proud, and kind of bring it back to where we want to be, and keep this thing rolling.”
He listed several mentors, including Woolfolk, former superintendent Chuck Gibson and former Jones County principal John Trimnell, and longtime former head baseball coach and athletics director Barry Veal, now in the same positions at Stratford.
“All these guys taught me a lot of life lessons,” David said. “How to kind of go about my way and how to do things, and kinda keep your head down and just keep pumping away. It may not go the way you want it some days, but you got that next day. You get up and you kinda make it better.”
On the long list at the meeting of personnel moves covering schools throughout the county were also the resignations of assistant coaches Daniel Brinson, Jake Chastain, and Will Conner. Chastain is the new offensive coordinator at Baldwin and Conner has joined the staff at Houston County while Brinson is now at Valdosta.
The approval of David apparently brings to a close a frenetic period that began on Jan. 18 with the Facebook post of Jones County booster and former owner of part of Team Sports Jamie Huckeba, touching on how athletics director Chad Alligood handled many aspects of fund-raising and purchasing throughout the athletics department, as well as head football coach Mike Chastain’s firing of assistant coach Conner.
More than 100 replies, mostly in agreement, led to the topic being address during a board meeting called ostensibly to discuss House Bill 581.
Alligood and Chastian defended themselves – against mostly unrelated issues – in that meeting, which included nearly a dozen speakers from the public, Gibson and former superintendent William Mathews.
The meeting was recorded and posted on Facebook.
Huckeba posted a counter on Facebook on Jan. 25 to many of Alligood’s explanations.
Reports of the resignations of Chastain and Alligood surfaced on Friday, Jan. 31, but neither responded to inquiries from the media and there was no word from the board or high school or any of its officials.
Finally, the resignations were confirmed on Feb. 3.
After an open records request a few days later from WMGT 41 NBC, the Gray Police Department confirmed that an investigation into Jones County’s Touchdown Club had started, noting that superintendent Charles Lundy had met with police regarding the “possible misappropriation of funds.”
While the community was in a tizzy, Woolfolk calmly went about the first of the most public duties in his administrative career, finding a football coach.
Less than two week after the resignations, on Feb. 11, Justin Montgomery was approved as the new head football coach, to almost universal positive reviews from many in the area and state coaching community.
While Montgomery, a John Milledge grad and former assistant with the Trojans as well as Warner Robins, began looking for a staff, Woolfolk dove into the next task, finding the right fit at athletics director.
A constant complaint emanating from Huckeba’s posts was the fact that Alligood had no Jones County ties when he got the job, and the sentiment toward hiring only those with a county background grew.
Some sources immediately mentioned David as a quality candidate, way back in early February.
An open records request from 41 NBC to the Jones County school system was acknowledged in early February but not acted on for about two weeks. Included with the letters of resignation was information regarding an audit, as well as a sheet that noted while coaches in a sport oversee their program’s booster club, coaches can’t be on booster club accounts, for legal protection.
Multiple sources indicate that last statement may be at the crux of the investigation.
The good news for David is that the Jones County overall coaching staff situation appears to be pretty stable, although this time of year and later is when non-football changes tend to happen. But the fallout from the end of the Chastain and Alligood periods as well as an investigation into the Touchdown Club sit in front of him no matter what.