Longtime head football coach Jeff Herron says side effects from cancer treatments affected decision to retire
In an interview with ITG Next’s Phil Jones, Jeff Herron talks about when his health problems began, what the doctors are saying about his future, and how it all led to his decision to step away from his duties as the Camden County High School head football coach.
The End of an Era
In a stunning Friday-morning announcement, Camden County head football coach Jeff Herron said that this past football season would be his last.
“After much thought and prayer, I have decided to retire from teaching and coaching,” Herron said in a release posted to the Facebook page of K-Bay 106.3, Camden County football’s flagship radio station.
While many coaches who have been as successful as Herron eventually decide they’ve had enough, factors outside of football have forced Herron to step away sooner than maybe he was planning to. In the announcement, Herron said he had been dealing with health problems over the past 2.5 years after being diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer.
The Saturday following his retirement announcement, Herron said in a phone interview that after the 2023 football season had ended, he was celebrating Christmas with his family when he looked at his wife, Inka Herron, and told her he was ready to retire.
“I told her that I thought this was really it,” Jeff Herron said. “I was ready to step away. I think she had been ready for me to retire.”
Something Wasn’t Right
Herron is the only head coach in Georgia high school football history to win state titles at three different schools: Oconee County (1999), Camden County (2003, 2008, 2009), and Grayson (2016). After winning the state title with Grayson in his first and only season with the Rams, Herron left Georgia to coach at TL Hanna High School in South Carolina, where his winning ways continued with two region championships.
During his second season (2018) with the Yellow Jackets, Herron noticed a problem using the restroom. He had blood in his urine and was understandably concerned.
“I saw that and thought, ‘Something isn’t right,’” Herron said.
A trip to the doctor confirmed what Herron and his physician had feared: He had prostate cancer. While doctors decided on the best way to attack his cancer, Herron decided to take some time off and away from coaching.
“In 2019, I was out of coaching that season altogether,” he said. “That winter, the doctors told me they were going to do radiation,” Herron said.
Fortunately, the treatments worked, and that allowed Herron to not only get back on the field, but eventually find his way back to the place where he had enjoyed more success than any of his other stops: Camden County.
While the treatment for his cancer has worked, it has come with some difficult side effects. That, coupled with the stress of his job, brought him to his decision to step away from a career that began as a high school head football coach at Cedar Shoals in 1989 and generated 334 wins and five state championships.
“I did not want my passion for the game, the way I prepare our team, and how I compete to suffer because of what I’m having to deal with,” Herron said. “I don’t think I’m capable of doing the things I need to do and be as successful as I want to be.”
What’s Next
In his phone interview, Herron said that during an appointment just before Christmas, his oncologist took him off all the medications he had been on for the past three years.
“They had told me that the medicines they put me on would probably last about two, maybe three years, then they would likely stop working altogether at some point,” Herron said
Doctors will now monitor him over the next few weeks as they determine the next course of action, which Herron said is up in the air.
“They told me that they can treat my cancer, but there is no cure,” Herron said. “And they will have to decide what the next round of treatment will be for me.”
For all of us who know Jeff Herron, the guy always has a plan for winning, and he always seems to find a way to do just that when the game is on the line.
