Area h.s. football coaching carousel stops at East Laurens, still has stops to make

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The high school football coaching carousel in Central Georgia has slowed a bit, the latest stop coming at East Laurens.

          Laurens County’s school board approved the hiring of Griffin defensive coordinator Bin Turner on Thursday night to become the Falcons’ sixth different head coach – with one repeat – since the turn of the century.

          He replaces Chris Robinson, who was 1-19 in two seasons after taking over for Buddy Sorrow, who went 4-6 in his second stint with the Falcons but retired because of health reasons. Robinson had been the Falcons’ defensive coordinator for five years before the promotion.

          Turner is the second former Griffin coordinator to take over a Central Georgia program.

          Justin Rogers was Griffin’s offensive coordinator when the Bears finished off a perfect season in 2013 with the Class 5A state title.

          The Falcons can only hope for a fraction of that success as Turner takes over as tough a job right now as any in the state.

          East Laurens went 0-10 in 2017, scoring only 50 points. The Falcons made the playoffs in 2012, their last winning season, and in 2007 and 2003. They last had consecutive winning seasons in 1999-2000, going 6-5 and 9-3 under Sorrow.

          Sorrow is the only East Laurens head coach with more than one season to leave with a winning record, going 60-45 in 10 seasons. The closest to .500 after that was Fred Priest going 10-11 in 2003-04.

          Turner was the Bears’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons, helping Griffin to a 20-4 mark. Jones County ended Griffin’s season in 2017 with a 32-8 win in the first round of the playoffs.

          The Bears reached the third round of the 2016 playoffs, losing 41-34 to eventual 5A champ Stockbridge. In two seasons, Griffin held nne opponents to single digit scoring and had four shutouts.

          Turner went 5-16 in two seasons as head coach at Rockmart with a playoff berth in 2015. He replaced Dan Duff, who retired after 12 seasons. Rockmart was in AAA during Turner’s time there, but dropped down to AA and made the playoffs the past two seasons.

          The Dublin Courier-Herald reported that the opening drew 32 applicants, and that was narrowed to those with head coaching or coordinator experience, and there were three finalists.

          Turner went to Rockmart from an assistant position at McIntosh County Academy. The 1998 Swainsboro grad played at GMC and then earned his bachelor’s from Albany State, and has also coached at Twiggs County, Swainsboro, Metter, and Fitzgerald.

          Zackery Harris lasted one season at Twiggs County and was replaced in December by Kelvin Blackshear, a day after Harris was dismissed, giving some residents what they wanted a year earlier.

          Harris joined the staff of then-head coach Ashley Harden, now at Northeast, after he was released as head coach at Putnam County. More than 200 residents signed a petition in favor of Blackshear, a Twiggs County graduate, getting the job over Harris.

          The 2002 graduate of Twiggs County coached in 2017 at Martin Luther King Jr. in Lithonia. The Lions, under their sixth head coach since 2009, went 4-6 in 2017. He was a graduate assistant at Fort Valley State, and has been an assistant at Berrien and Lithonia, as well as the North Clayton Middle School and Lithonia Middle School.

          And Blackshear’s task is similar to Turner’s at East Laurens. The Cobras were a surprising 8-4 in 2016 in Harden’s second year, the team’s first winning season since 2009, the final season in Dexter Copeland’s first stint at the school. He returned in 2014 and went 1-9, but was then hired at Macon County to replace Larry Harold, who is now at Central.

          Central is the former employer of Jesse Hicks, who Copeland replaced at Baldwin.

          Blackshear is Twiggs County’s seven head coach since Copeland left in 2009. In that span, the Cobras have won two games or fewer six times, going winless in 2011 and 2017.

          Putnam County is still searching for a replacement for Kyle Gourley, with whom it parted ways after five years and an 18-33 record, highlighted by a 7-4 mark in2015. The War Eagles went 5-5 in 2017.

          Westside lost assistant coach Rich Fendley, so of the late Richard Fendley, a staple of Warner Robins coaching, to the top spot at Bowdon in December. Fendley has coached at Alexander, Villa Rica, Newnan and Heard County, and has a strong background in strength and conditioning.

          Around the state, Lincoln County is looking for a new coach with the resignation of Kevin Banks, four seasons after replacing legend Larry Campbell. Banks went 30-15-1 after serving on the staff for 19 seasons under Campbell.

          Former Perry head coach Andy Scott was let go after six seasons at Kennesaw Mountain, and ex-Putnam County head coach Ben Reaves went 17-33 at Walnut Grove before announcing his retirement in November.

          Ashley Henderson is making the jump from GISA power Valwood to Class 5A Thomas County Central, a region foe for Warner Robins and Veterans. Former Georgia standout Robert Edwards was let go at Greene County in December after a 29-37 record.