By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

It was only a matter of time before Spoon Risper landed somewhere, though where he landed likely wasn’t on the list of potential places a month ago.

But the Macon County football head coaching job became available when the system suddenly dismissed Kurt Williams after his second season, and that job became in play for Risper, who announced before the 2025 season that it would be his last at Westside.

He has been interested in the Mount de Sales job, vacant since early January when Gray Yates left for a coaching job in Memphis. Risper reportedly had two official interviews at Mount de Sales and has spent time on campus, but was clearly in the Macon County hunt early on.

The Macon County school board approved the hiring on Tuesday at its meeting, but didn’t release the news until Thursday morning. The release included Risper’s cover letter and resume.

Risper played quarterback and graduated from Upson-Lee High when that school began after Upson and R.E. Lee merged in the early 1990s.

He started for two years and lettered for three at West Georgia, which has become a coaching cradle. Risper was inducted into the Thomaston-Upson Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

While starting his coaching career at Weaver Middle School, Risper played five years in the Arena League for the Macon Knights.

He succeeded the legendary Robert Davis in 2009 at Westside.

Westside went 11-2 that first season, the lone double-digit winning mark since then, and reached the first of two quarterfinal trips under Risper.

In November of 2024, Westside beat Jackson 29-23 for Risper’s 115th win, the most in Bibb County public school history. He passed Tom Simonton, who went 114-83-1 in 19 seasons at Central, retiring after the 1997 season.

Risper announced last May that he was moving on after the 2025 season, his 17th as head coach. Westside finished 3-8 in the worst season since the program’s first full varsity schedule in 1998.

It will be a notable transition for Risper, who has spent his career in Bibb County and with Westside, in working to continue Macon County’s tradition.

He went 119-72 overall, with 42 percent of those wins coming against Bibb County public schools Central, Southwest, Howard, and Rutland, all four of whom have struggled for years.

The Seminoles last won a region championship in 2012, Risper’s fourth season after taking over for Davis.

Macon County has made the postseason every year since 2012, winning the 2016 Class A state title under Dexter Copeland, in between quarterfinal finishes.

The Bulldogs have won a playoff game eight times in that span, while the Seminoles went 7-14 in the postseason under Risper.

Since 2000, Macon County has missed the playoffs only four times, and won a postseason game 12 times, racking up eight region titles.

Macon County is a regular occupant of top-10 rankings, although the Bulldogs have been mostly absent the past two seasons, a rarity. It has won 61.7 percent of its games all time in 65 seasons, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, with 16 region and two state titles.

Two coaches have left Macon County for Bibb County, Bobby Hughes in 2008 to start the program at Howard and C.B. Cornett in 1997 to Central.

Macon County ended Copeland’s nine-season run after a 10-3 finish and quarterfinal trip in 2023. Williams, a former assistant at Macon County, was hired away from Lanier, and went 12-11, winning the 2024 Region 6-A/Division II title and losing a tiebreaker by a point for the top seed in 2025.

Williams told The Central Georgia Sports Report last week that Macon County returned nearly 20 starters, including standout running back and Georgia commit Noah Parker.

Westside announced longtime Seminoles assistant James Harris three weeks ago as Risper’s successor.

Mount de Sales, Wilkinson County, Central Fellowship, and Southwest remain vacant, as does Jasper County, which lost head coach Ashley Henderson last week to East Jackson.