Walton football coach takes Ware County job

Ed Dudley, who led Walton to the Class AAAAA football semifinals in 2004 and 2007, will be introduced Friday as the new coach of Ware County High in Waycross.

Dudley replaces John Stephens, who retired after one season at Ware, which finished 6-6 after being ranked No. 1 in preseason in Class AAAA. Ware was the AAAA runner-up to Northside-Warner Robins in 2007 under Dan Ragle.

“I’m just excited about a small-town atmosphere,” Dudley said of Ware County, which borders Florida in Southeast Georgia. “It’s the only show in town in Waycross. Our program at Walton is at high tide, and it was a good time to leave when there aren’t a lot of fleas on the program. The timing for everybody might be good.”

Dudley was 108-50 in his 14 seasons in Walton. He and Marietta’s Friday Richards had been Cobb County’s longest-tenured head coaches, each starting in 1995.

Walton had one region title in its history when it hired Dudley, who had been at Buford from 1992-94. Walton won region titles under Dudley in 1999, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008 and had 10 first-team all-state players.

Dudley will be approved by the Ware County school board at noon Friday, then meet his new team. Dudley met with his Walton players for the final time Thursday.

“Today was a hard day for me,” Dudley said. “I made it probably 30 seconds before I broke up and had to leave the room. Not my best moment. But your goal in life is to go somewhere and make it better than how you found it. I think I can walk away and say that happened here.”

Dudley acknowledged that the move from East Cobb to South Georgia provides a sharp contrast, but no more than going to Walton after coaching in smaller towns such as Buford, Statesboro and Carrollton. Dudley is an Athens native and graduate of St. Pius in DeKalb County.

“North to South, urban to rural, all those things, but we’re excited about change,” said Dudley, who has four school-age children, all born in Marietta. “We think that’s the spice of life.”