The 16 head coaches in the state finals have won 1,420 games, lost only 432, tied six, and have a winning percentage of .766 while in Georgia. They have won 18 GHSA state championships.
GHSF Daily will take a closer look each of the 16 coaches today and Wednesday, starting with classes AAAAAAA to AAAA.
Class AAAAAAA
*Adam Clack, Milton: Clack is in his second season as Milton's head coach. The Eagles won nine games in the two seasons before Clack's arrival. They won nine games in his first season, and now Milton is in its first state-championship game after 69 years of trying. Clack is 41-17 overall as a head coach. For three seasons, he was head coach at West Forsyth, a program he helped start in 2007. Clack also has been on staffs at Southeast Bulloch and South Forsyth. Clack was a high school wide receiver and cornerback at Winder-Barrow, where he also played baseball and wrestled.
*Rush Propst, Colquitt County: Propst once was called the most famous high school coach in the country, and the title still fits. He got the label from his days at Hoover High in Alabama, where he won five state titles, and from the MTV series "Two-A-Days," which chronicled Hoover's nationally prominent football program. Some of his former assistants include Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt, Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and Tennessee defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer. Propst was hired at Colquitt County in 2008. In his 11 seasons in Moultrie, Propst has led the Packers to 119 wins and state titles in 2015 and 2016. The Packers' nine semifinal appearances in 10 seasons are a state record in the highest classification. Propst is from Ohatchee, Ala. One of his first coaching jobs in the 1980s was a brief stint at Cherokee High in Georgia. His overall record as a head coach is 295-95.
Class AAAAAA
*Dean Fabrizio, Lee County: Fabrizio came to Lee County in 2009, inheriting a team that had gone 0-10 and a program with only one region title and two state-playoff victories in its history. In the 10 years since, Lee County is 80-35 with three region titles and one state title, which was won last year. It was the southwest Georgia school's first championship in football. Fabrizio had come from Peach County, where he was the defensive coordinator. Fabrizio is from Winter Park, Fla. He played college football at Central Methodist in Missouri and coached there for three seasons before heading to the Orlando area. He was an assistant there for several years and was part of two Class 6A state-championship teams. Fabrizio was head coach for two seasons at DeLand, Fla., taking over a program that had not had a winning season in two years and leading it to consecutive winning seasons.
*Kevin Kinsler, Northside (Warner Robins): Kinsler is 97-20 in 10 seasons at Northside and is likely to become one of the 15 fastest Georgia head coaches to win 100 games. He won a state title in 2014. Kinsler is a former Northside quarterback who had been a Northside assistant for 22 seasons, 15 as the defensive coordinator, when promoted to head coach in 2010. He spent five years as an assistant at Haralson County before coming home to Northside. Kinsler succeeded 300-game winner Conrad Nix, who also was Kinsler's coach as a high school player. Kinsler played on West Georgia's 1982 Division III national championship team.
Class AAAAA
*Mike Chastain, Warner Robins: Chastain had been rival Houston County's offensive coordinator for three seasons, helping develop current Georgia QB Jake Fromm, when hired as Warner Robins' head coach in 2016. His first season resulted in a 3-8 finish, but the Demons have gone 26-3 since. Chastain previously had been an assistant at Bleckley County, Lee County, Peach County, Veterans and his alma mater, Warner Robins' archrival Northside. Chastain was on Peach's staff under Chad Campbell with Dean Fabrizio, who then brought him to Lee County upon getting that job in 2009. For the second straight year, Campbell, Fabrizio and Chastain are all head coaches in the finals.
*Jeff Littleton, Bainbridge: This is Littleton's seventh season as Bainbridge's head coach. His teams are 46-27 with one region title, in 2015. This will be his first venture into the state finals as head coach, but he's familiar with the big game. Littleton was Cairo's defensive coordinator on a Class AAA champion in 2008 and runner-up in 2007. Littleton played for Worth County's 1987 state championship team. Littleton also has been on the coaching staffs at Lowndes, Worth County, Dooly County and Tift County.
Class AAAA
*Joey King, Cartersville: *King's record in six seasons as a head coach is 67-3, and his .957 winning percentage is the highest of any Georgia coach since World War II. His Cartersville teams have won two state titles (2015-16). In 2017, King became the fastest Georgia head coach to 50 victories (50-2), breaking a record set by GACA Hall of Fame coach Robert Davis, who started 50-3 in the 1970s. A Cedartown native, King was the offensive coordinator at Carrollton from 2008 to 2013, coaching in two state-championship games (2010, 2013) before he got the Cartersville job. King guided a run-based Wing-T offense at Carrollton but brought a high-tech passing game to Cartersville to utilize the talents of Trevor Lawrence, now at Clemson.
*Tim McFarlin, Blessed Trinity: McFarlin is one of 15 head coaches in GHSA history to win state titles at two schools. He won a Class AAAAA championship in 2006 at Roswell, where his record was 82-34-1 in 10 seasons, and the 2017 Class AAAA championship with Blessed Trinity, where his record is 88-19-1 in eight seasons. McFarlin stepped away from coaching for a season in 2008 while continuing to teach at Roswell, then was an assistant at King's Ridge and then Roswell again before taking the Blessed Trinity job in 2011. He has led the Titans to five region titles. McFarlin has spent most of his life in north Fulton County. He was graduated from Milton, where he played quarterback and defensive back, and was a 16-year assistant at Roswell before succeeding Ray Manus in 1998.
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