Several Georgia high schools have named new head football coaches this offseason with the number of new hires approaching 60. There are three Georgia high school football coaches who made quite the impact when hired at their previous schools. The question is: Can they do it again with their new teams in 2025?
Here’s a look at the three, how they built winners before, and how they plan to build winners at their new schools.
- Adam Clack is the new head football coach for the Parkview Panthers. In 2018 Clack led the Milton Eagles to their first state championship, a 14-13 win over top-ranked Colquitt County. Just three seasons later, he led the Eagles to a second state title game, which they lost to Collins Hill.
- Steve DeVoursney has been hired as the new head football coach for the Veterans Warhawks. In 2013 DeVoursney led the Griffin Bears to a state title over Carrollton, their first championship in 35 years. He also led the Cairo Syrupmakers to two region titles and 53 wins in seven seasons.
- Daniel “Boone” Williams is the new head football coach for the Northside (Warner Robins) Eagles. In 2022 Williams led the Langston Hughes Panthers to their first football state title in school history. He also led the Panthers to state championship game appearances in 2021 and in 2024 in the Class 6A finals.
Adam Clack | Parkview
When Clack was named Milton’s head football coach in 2017, he was taking over an Eagles program that had won zero state titles; had suffered through one of the state’s longest losing streaks, a 37-game stretch that included three straight 0-10 seasons; and had won its first state playoff game ever just three years earlier in 2014.
Clack changed all that, and he did it pretty fast, leading Milton to an 8-2 record in his first season as head coach there in 2017.
The following year, Clack led Milton to a 13-2 season and the school’s first ever state championship, a 14-13 win over the Colquitt County Packers.
Now, as the new head football coach at Parkview, he’s taking over a program with a much stronger history of winning. However, it’s been over 20 years since Parkview’s 45-0 run of three straight undefeated seasons and back-to-back-to-back state titles in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Parkview also won a state championship in 1997.
“I used to compete against those guys, growing up in neighboring Bartow County,” Clack said, recalling those championship years. “I had so much respect for Parkview and seeing how good they were as an outsider.”
Now, he looks forward to joining the Big Orange crowd.
“Now, I have the opportunity to put my stamp on things here, and I can’t wait,” Clack said.
Clack talked about the blueprint he has always followed in his coaching career and how he plans to apply it at Parkview.
“I have a formula that I like to use that includes a basic set of principles,” Clack said. “It’s instilling our culture in the locker room, as a coaching staff, where we introduce our core values, bringing in great coaches who have the acumen to develop our kids and put them in the right place to be successful.”
Clack said he is all about teamwork and putting effort into everything they do.
“We want to teach mental toughness,” he said. “When you get knocked down, you learn to get right back up.”
Clack said support from the administration and the community is a major part of the overall path to success.
As far as what the team will look like, Clack said that part has just begun.
“I told the team that I came in here not having watched five minutes of Parkview football,” he said. “But I did know a lot about the Parkview brand, and with that I know the potential we have for success here.”
Daniel “Boone” Williams | Northside (Warner Robins)
Williams arrives at Northside after spending the past six seasons at Hughes, where led the Panthers to a 63-17 record and three trips to the state finals from 2019 to 2024.
The Hughes program had enjoyed nominal success prior to Williams’ arrival, advancing to the state playoffs most years, but never getting further than the quarterfinals.
After Hughes finished with just two wins in Williams’ first season there, the program underwent a complete makeover, with Williams leading the program to two region championships, three state runner-up finishes, and a state title in 2022.
He’ll now look to resurrect a proud Northside football program that has enjoyed one of Georgia high school football’s most successful strings of winning seasons.
“This program finished with 10 or more wins every year from 1998 to 2014, and that included two perfect 15-0 seasons,” Williams said.
It’s clear he’s researched his new team.
“The expectations of that kind of winning history are staring me right in the face,” he said matter-of-factly.
Williams said he’s not shying away from any of it. He doesn’t have to, according to what he sees.
“This roster has the talent to go compete right now this season,” Williams said. “We just needed a change in the chemical balance here.”
Williams’ philosophy is to get things right off of the field first, which will then take care of what happens on the field.
“We’re going to focus on loving these kids and making sure their grades are where they need to be,” he said. “I want to make sure they are buying into the process here. It’s the little things that come first.”
As far as what takes place on the field, Williams referenced the style of football he has been known for at Hughes.
“I’ve received a lot of recognition for having an offense that scores a lot of points and playing violent defense,” he said.
Under Williams, the 2022 Hughes offense set the Georgia high school football state record for points scored in a season with 792, and they were the first team in state history to score at least 35 points in every game in a single season.
Williams said the community support at Northside is the best he’s ever seen anywhere.
“Tradition never graduates, and Northside is the prime example of that,” he said. “I have had people that graduated in 1963, in 1990, etc., that walk in this building every day. I truly believe that if you cut our fans, they will bleed blue, orange, and white.”
Steve DeVoursney | Veterans
DeVoursney was successful as a head coach in Georgia with a 182-68 record between Griffin and Cairo combined.
At Griffin, DeVoursney took over as head coach in 2000 and resigned in 2013. He led the Bears to 128 wins during his 13 seasons as head coach, including a perfect 15-0 season and state championship in 2013 during his final year there.
At Cairo, DeVoursney was hired in 2015, then took the team to an 11-win season and a region championship the very next season in 2016. Two seasons later, he led Cairo to its second region title with a 10-win season. The Syrupmakers advanced to the state quarterfinals in both years.
DeVoursney admitted that the Veterans job will be challenging and a bit different from his previous stints as a Georgia high school football head coach with Griffin and Cairo.
“At both Griffin and Cairo, I was promoted to head coach from within (as an assistant coach), so I knew the players, the administration, everybody,” DeVoursney said. “Here at Veterans, I just now found my office, and I have no idea about who we have as far as our kids are concerned, but we’ll figure it out.”
DeVoursney said the key to winning at Veterans, just as it was at Cairo and Griffin, will be getting the players to buy what he’s selling.
“You get the kids to buy in, as well as the community and the support, that’s the first step,” he said. “We’ve got the support here, there is no doubt about that.”
DeVoursney said one of the things that attracted him to Veterans is the growth of the Houston County area, especially the Veterans school district.
“A lot of the growth is moving this way towards the south end of the county, and that’s good for us,” DeVoursney said.
Veterans finished 1-9 in 2024 and is in the second season of a schedule that ITG Next ranked as the toughest overall Georgia high school football schedule in 2024.
How quickly does DeVoursney think he can get the Warhawks back to being competitive?
“I think if we can get through this season, then we’ll be ok,” he said. “At the end of the day, football is football. Once you get to the grass, everything is fine.”
