There’s an old saying in football – and really in any sport – that it’s the players who win games, not the coaches. That may very well be true, but at several Georgia high school football programs, fans are ready to give credit to their new head coaches for early 2022 turnarounds. Here’s a look at some teams who have struggled in recent years but are thriving five weeks into the current campaign under new leadership.
Peachtree Ridge: Matt Helmerich
The Lions are 3-1 under new head coach Matt Helmerich, who came to Peachtree Ridge this offseason from Johns Creek, where he spent five years building the Gladiators into a two-time region champion in 2018 and 2019, going undefeated in region play both seasons at 8-0. Helmerich had a 36-19 record during his time at the North Fulton school.
In his first season at Peachtree Ridge, he has equaled the number of wins the Lions had all of last season, when they finished 3-7 and scored just 72 points, an average of one TD per game. They’re coming off a 35-21 win over previously undefeated Winder-Barrow and have scored 118 points in their first four games, just below a 30 ppg average.
“Our goal coming in here was to win the region,” says Helmerich. “Maybe that’s realistic, maybe it’s not, with our inexperience, but that’s going to be our goal each year.”
So far, so good for this once-proud state championship program.
Wayne County: Jaybo Shaw
The Yellow Jackets are another example of impressive Georgia high school football turnarounds so far in 2022. They finished a collective 3-17 over the last two seasons, including last year’s winless 0-9 record. In an effort to return Wayne County to its winning ways of three years ago, the administration looked to the extreme northeast corner of the state and called on Rabun County coach Jaybo Shaw. A former Georgia Southern quarterback, Shaw won 35 games and lost just three while head coach at Rabun County, and having gone to school in Statesboro, he’s no stranger to southeast Georgia.
There’s no guarantee Shaw will ultimately have the same success as he enjoyed at Rabun County, but so far he has Wayne County at 2-1, including a 7-0 win over the heavily favored Appling County Pirates last week. The Jackets’ only loss was to Brooks County in a game they led at halftime, 19-14, before falling 39-25. Not bad for a program that is glad to be competing for wins again.
Worth County Rams: Jeffrey Hammond
Having had four different head coaches leading the Rams football program over the last five seasons, with little to no success, Worth County hired former Colquitt County offensive coordinator and Coffee offensive assistant Jeff Hammond to come in and guide the program. So far fans are thrilled with the team’s 4-0 start. That matches the total number of wins in each of the past two seasons, when Worth County finished 4-6 each year.
The Rams’ wins include a 16-14 defeat of Mitchell County, who they lost to early last season. Through the first four games, Worth is averaging 34 points while giving up only 15 points per contest, about half of what they surrendered last season. Hammond is known as one of the finest offensive minds around, and with an experienced quarterback in Chip Cooper to work with, this Rams program could be playing a lot more football when the regular season ends.
Cook High Hornets: Byron Slack
If it was the defense that Cook was looking to improve this season, they definitely made a great hired in defensive-minded Byron Slack, a longtime coordinator in Georgia. But so far it’s both the offense and the defense that are working together to give Cook its best start since the 2012 season, when the Hornets won their first four games under Ken Cofer.
Cook was forced to look for a new head coach late into the past offseason following the unexpected resignation of Jamie Rodgers, who left for Bradford High in Florida. Enter Slack, who held defensive coordinator slots at Camden, Lowndes, and Colquitt and served one season as head coach at Hillgrove High School. He was named the Hornets’ new head coach after an extensive search, and he has them playing lights out. Cook is 3-1 with impressive wins over Brooks County (the defending class A D-2 state champion), Pelham, and Clinch, which was undefeated coming into its game with Cook last week.
Cook is averaging 34 points per game through the first four contests, almost 10 more points than it averaged all of last season, a 5-6 campaign. Slack certainly is leading another of the more impressive 2022 turnarounds in Georgia high school football.
Lumpkin County: Heath Webb
Heath Webb was hired in the offseason as the new head coach of the Indians, and through the first four games, Lumpkin County is undefeated at 4-0. It’s another one of the dramatic turnarounds in the 2022 Georgia high school football season and a far cry from where this program has started – and finished – the past few seasons. Lumpkin County recorded just three wins from 2019-21, with 27 losses over that same period.
Under Webb, they’ve already surpassed that many in 2022, and there’s a lot of football left to be played. Webb comes from Gainesville, where he was head coach of the Red Elephants for the last four seasons. He led them to a playoff birth in three of those four years, and fans of the Indians are hoping he can do the same thing in Dahlonega.
While it’s too early to start thinking about playoffs, the last time this team made the postseason was in 2014. So you can’t blame Indians fans for dreaming a little, and at this rate, those dreams could easily become a reality. Lumpkin County is averaging 40 points per game, while giving up right at a TD per game. If Webb can keep that up, who knows how far this team can soar in 2022?
