By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

The interviews started not long after the opening was created.

As far as Chad Alligood is concerned, his first interview to be the head football coach and athletics director came a long, long time ago.

Like, in 1999, when Alligood first showed up on the campus as an assistant.

Finally, it paid off, just after lunchtime Tuesday when he, in fact, became Northside’s new head football coach and athletics director.

The Houston County Board of Education approved him Tuesday afternoon at its regular meeting.

“Everybody kept asking me, ‘Do you think it’s you?’,” Alligood said. “All I could control is how I presented myself.”

The decision came right at two months after Alligood’s boss, Kevin Kinsler, announced his retirement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after 10 years as head coach and dozens as part of the program at his alma mater.

The Houston County Board of Education approved him Tuesday afternoon at its regular meeting. Principal Jody Dean then told the team that he had picked Alligood over Valdosta offensive coordinator Josh Crawford, Alligood then talking to the team.

Superintendent Dr. Mark Scott said the school was in a win-win situation after going through the thorough interview process, which left the call to Dean.

“It was a tough decision, because we thought both candidates could do a good job,” Scott said. “Jody went away from that (final) interview that day having to sleep on it.

“It’s a big step.”

Scott is a former Northside principal who also knew Alligood from mutual connections in Milledgeville, and praised his reliability and consistency.

One thing Scott liked in particular was Alligood’s vision for the entire Northside athletics department, not just football.

“I think, too, what was where Chad set himself apart was his vision for the entire athletic program,” Scott said. “It’s bigger than just football. He wants to grow his other programs that have been up and down.

“He really wants a complete athletic program, and sees how important that is to the Northside community.”

Alligood was obviously happy to get the job, but talked with confidence after the announcement.

“I think my love for Northside High School,” Alligood said regarding the difference-maker. “Somebody might could come in there and talk better than me or have a better resume than me.

“But nobody was gonna come in there with the love for Northside High School that I have. Nobody was gonna come in there and have been through Coach (Conrad) Nix) and Coach Kinsler … .

“Northside is a unique place. If you’ve not been a part of Northside, you wouldn’t understand.”

Alligood, 45, is in his third stint at Northside. He is a Wilkinson County graduate who has degrees from Georgia College and Columbus State.

The brother-in-law of John Milledge head coach J.T. Wall started his career with those Trojans, began his first stint at Northside under Nix, returned to Wilkinson County for a year and went on to stints at Perry and FPD before returning to Northside in 2010.

Alligood returned to Northside a year ago and resumed his duties as offensive coordinator after two years as head coach at Washington-Wilkes.

He spent the preseason and part of the summer working with projected starting quarterback Willie Northern. All that was wasted when Northern transferred out of state in the summer.

Mason Ford moved into the starting role, and the Eagles got off to a decent 3-2 start. Nobody knew that a knee injury to Ford in the Baldwin game would lead to a nightmarish finish.

Northside lost 39-0 to Warner Robins, a series record, and ended the season on a five-game losing streak. Ford was never able to recover fully from the knee injury, and the offensive plan had to adjust.

Ford led Region 1-6A in rushing through five games, and ended the regular season atop the region rushing list, although the 573 first-half yards were followed by only 67 yards in the second half.

Northside finished 3-7, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1991.

The Eagles lost by 9.10 points a game in 2019, the fourth-largest total in program history. The 18.3 points a game scored is the lowest since 1963.

Alligood said that three one-possession losses get lost in the narrative of the season, which he said was only a nightmare record-wise.

“The one thing I loved about last year’s team is those kids practiced and played hard every Friday night,” said Alligood, noting that 120 kids are currently part of the football program’s weightlifting program. “That’s the one thing I will always love about that team, how hard they played and how hard they practiced and gave everything they had.”

He knows of the grousing among the fan base about a predictable run-first option-heavy offense that defenses found easier and easier to stop in 2019.

“The name of the game,” Alligood said, “is to win.”

A chunk of that fan base no doubt likes a Northside guy – albeit not an alum – taking over, but another chunk didn’t want the man in charge of a perceived one-dimensional offense taking over.

Alligood understands the observations of that second chunk, and offers a little history lesson.

“If you go back and look, when I was OC at Perry, we held every passing record they had down there until recently,” he said. “At Northside, we threw the ball around a good bit. We didn’t last year, with some limitations we had.”

Washington-Wilkes’ quarterback Donovan Anthony, headed to Army, passed for 2,482 yards and 27 touchdowns in Alligood’s two season as head coach.

“Washington-Wilkes, we threw the ball around all over,” he said. “We held every single-season passing record at Washington-Wilkes that first year.”

But plans are determined by head coaches, and by the talent available. And what the quarterback can do. Alligood didn’t want to say who would play and what the Eagles would do on offense until practice got started and skill sets made themselves known.

Alligood, who will begin staff conversations on Wednesday, said he’s not married to a scheme or philosophy, going with what fits the players the best.

“I feel like I’ve always done a good job of using the talent we’ve had and what they’re capable of doing,” he said. “There will be some tweaks we’ll make to the offense to make sure we’re giving our guys a chance to be successful.”

The Eagles went 80-11 with Alligood as offensive coordinator before he left for W-W, current Georgia Tech multi-position player Tobias Oliver leading Northside to the 2014 GHSA Class 5A state title.

Oliver, incidentally, left Northside as the program’s record-holder in passing yards and completions, and third in touchdown passes, also as the No. 4 all-time rusher.

Alligood said by dinnertime Tuesday that he’d gotten a little more than 300 texts and more than 50 calls, including many from those playing for the Eagles in the early 2000s.

“What means more than anything to me is the guys that played for us at Northside in the early 2000s you hadn’t talked to in awhile send you a text and congratulate you,” he said. “To me, that’s what it’s all about.”

And that’s why the interview process started in 1999 and kept on going, no matter where he was.

“When you come back to a place three times, that says something about the place, and you,” he said. “It’s a great place.”