Coaching Carousel: Perry picks experienced football assistant for basketball; other hoops moves (Westside, Wilkinson County)
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
When Josh Grube resigned as Westside’s head boys basketball coach and Mark Gainous did the same at Perry less than a month apart, the local hoops community did some math.
Considering that Grube - a Warner Robins grad and one of the most successful head coaches in Bibb County for nearly two decades - has lived in Houston County for years, he seemed a good fit to take over the Panthers.
Alas, Perry has gone with a surprise hire, football assistant Jason Stephens.
The school posted the announcement Thursday afternoon. He will also be on the football staff.
Stephens makes his varsity boys basketball coaching debut following Gainous, who took the job in March of 2022, departing as head men’s coach at Georgia College and joining wife Tasha, who was the Perry girls coach at the time.
Gainous succeeded longtime Perry basketball coach Reggie West, who coached the Panthers’ girls and then boys, the latter for four years.
That was after Brett Hardy’s full contract wasn’t renewed after 16 seasons and he resigned in May of 2017.
Perry athletics director Tyler Rodgers succeeded West as the Panthers’ head girls coach in 2017-18
Stephens, who was also ACE’s first girls basketball coach for two seasons, was a three-sport athlete at Westside, graduating in 2007 and playing at Miles of the SIAC.
He was the first head football coach at ACE Charter, which began playing GHSA ball in 2018. He was released after the season-opening 48-0 loss to FPD to start the 2021 year, finishing 9-19 with the Gryphons.
Stephens, who also coached track at ACE, returned to Westside, and then took a job at Northside, which went 0-10 in 2025 in the first season with Boone Williams as head coach.
On the court: Westside, Wilkinson County
Westside has hired Coffee assistant coach Shedric Office to replace Josh Grube with the boys team. Coffee went 18-11 last season. Office has also been head coach at Turner County, his alma mater. He graduated from Fort Valley State.
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Thomas County Central assistant Juwan Hopkins is taking over the Wilkinson County boys program. He has spent the past six years at TCC, in part as head coach.
Dustin Archebelle’s hours have changed, moving from the Wilkinson County boys staff to head boys coach to now the new head girls coach for the Warriors.
The GMC Prep and Georgia College grad was an assistant on the boys’ 2023 state title team. Then-head coach Xavier Whipple was involved in an auto accident in October of 2023 that left him seriously injured and took the life of friend and colleague Tinetta Smith.
Whipple hasn’t returned to coaching as he continues recovery.
Westside, Northeast, and Dodge County still have openings for head girls coaches, while the Upson-Lee boys job is still vacant.