A closer look at the championship game head coaches
Class AAAAAA
Andy Dyer, Archer
High school: Brookwood
College: West Georgia
Record: 36-24 (.600)
State titles: 0
Background: Dyer started Archer's program in 2009. He came from Mill Creek, where he was on the staff that started that program in 2004. Dyer had been an assistant coach for 11 seasons overall, first at East Coweta, then his alma mater Brookwood.
Noteworthy: Dyer was a defensive back at West Georgia and also played baseball for a year there. Dyer is married to his high school sweetheart, Kim, who was voted Miss Brookwood her senior year.
Rush Propst, Colquitt County
High school: Ohatchee (Ala.)
College: Jacksonville State
Record: 246-86 (.741)
State titles: 5 (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Hoover)
Background: Propst's first head coaching job came at Ashville High in Alabama in 1989 after stints as an assistant at three schools, including one season at Cherokee in Canton. Propst also was head coach of Eufaula (1994-96), Alba (1997) and Alma Bryant (1998) but gained fame at Hoover, where he won 110 games and five state titles in nine seasons and was featured in the MTV reality series "Two-A-Days." He became Colquitt County's head coach in 2008 and is 70-25 there.
Noteworthy: Propst was a walk-on wide receiver at Jacksonville State. Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt was an assistant to Propst at Hoover from 2004 to 2006 and appeared in "Two-A-Days." Georgia linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer also was on Propst's staff at Hoover.
Class AAAAA
Corey Jarvis, Mays
High school: Harper
College: Albany State
Record: 81-35 (.698)
State titles: 0
Background: Jarvis was hired at Mays in 2013. He previously had been had coach at M.L. King (2005-09), where he was 49-11; and Duluth (2010-12), where he was 8-12. Duluth was 2-28 in the three seasons before hiring Jarvis.
Noteworthy: Jarvis grew up in the Mays district but attended Harper because his older sister went there for the magnet program. He grew up playing sports with several members of Brown's 1991 team, the last Atlanta city school to make the state finals until Mays. Jarvis went on to play wide receiver and defensive back at Albany State.
Kevin Kinsler, Northside (Warner Robins)
High school: Northside
College: West Georgia
Record: 59-6 (.908)
State titles: 0
Background: 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.
Noteworthy: 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 AAAA
Jess Simpson, Buford
High school: Marietta
College: Auburn
Record: 137-18 (.884)
State titles: 6 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 Buford)
Background: Simpson played at Marietta under Dexter Wood, then at Auburn under Pat Dye and won an SEC title in 1989. Simpson assisted Wood at Marietta and Buford. Simpson was a Buford assistant for nine years before getting the head coaching job in 2005. He was defensive coordinator on three Buford state championship teams.
Noteworthy: Simpson was 0-10 in his first head coaching job at East Paulding in 1997. He also had three victories overturned last season because of the inadvertent use of an ineligible player for only a few plays late in blowout games. His record at Buford without the forfeits would be 140-5.
Paul Standard, St. Pius
High school: St. Pius
College: The Citadel
Record: 129-43 (.750)
State titles: 0
Background: Standard has been his alma mater's head coach since 2001. He assisted at Loganville (1985), Meadowcreek (1986-1990) and Dacula (1991-2000), all under Kevin Maloof, another St. Pius alumnus.
Noteworthy: St. Pius had not won 10 games in a season or advanced in the playoffs in 33 years when Standard was hired. St. Pius has had six 10-win seasons and won 20 playoff games since.
Class AAA
Hal Lamb, Calhoun
High school: Commerce
College: West Georgia
Record: 187-46 (.803)
State titles: 1 (2011 Calhoun)
Background: Lamb was an assistant at Cartersville from 1988 to 1995 and was the offensive coordinator on Cartersville's 1991 state championship team. Lamb was head coach at Upson-Lee for two seasons before coming in 1999 to Calhoun, where he has won 14 region titles.
Noteworthy: Lamb is one of fewer than 10 men to win Georgia state championships as player and coach. He was a wide receiver on Commerce's 1981 Class AA championship team. He was coach for Calhoun's 2011 Class AA championship team. He was a wide receiver who made it into West Georgia's sports hall of fame in 1998.
Joel Ingram, Washington County
High school: Arab (Ala.)
College: Jacksonville State
Record: 85-24-1 (.777)
State titles: 0
Background: Ingram came to Washington County in 2001 after a season with his college alma mater, Jacksonville State. He became offensive coordinator in 2002. Ingram became the Golden Hawks' head coach in 2006 when Rick Tomberlin, who had led them to four state titles, left for Valdosta.
Noteworthy: Ingram was a four-year starting center at Jacksonville State (1995-98) and made the all-conference team. As a senior, he was voted Mr. Jax State by the student body.
Class AA
Tim Hardy, GAC
High school: Newton-Conover (N.C.)
College: Wheaton (Ill.)
Record: 43-21 (.672)
State titles: 0
Background: Hardy came to Georgia in 2009 to start the program at Mountain View in Gwinnett County. He moved over to GAC in 2012. Hardy coached for nine seasons at Wheaton College, where he most recently had been offensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coordinator.
Noteworthy: Hardy was a quarterback and College Conference of Illinois offensive player of the year at Wheaton, a Division III school, in 1998. He passed for 6,044 yards in his career. In October, Hardy was inducted into Wheaton's athletics Hall of Honor.
Danny Britt, Benedictine
High school: Westwood School
College: Georgia Southern
Record: 70-35 (.667)
State titles: 0
Background: Britt took the Benedictine job in 2011. He had been at another Savannah school, Calvary Day, since 1998, with five of those seasons as head coach (2001-05). Britt was a defensive back and linebacker at Georgia Southern, where he began as a walk-on, won a Division I-AA national title in 1990 and left as a starter and team captain.
Noteworthy: Seattle Seahawks defensive end Demarcus Dobbs lived with Britt's family for his senior season at Calvary Day in a situation similar to that of Michael Oher in the move "The Blind Side." Britt and Dobbs have remained close. Britt and his wife were guests of Dobbs for the Super Bowl when Dobbs played for the 49ers.
Class A (public)
David Daniell, Hawkinsville
High school: West Laurens
College: Georgia Southwestern
Record: 25-11 (.694)
State titles: 0
Background: Daniell was the team's offensive coordinator when promoted in 2012. Before coming to Hawkinsville, Daniell had coached at Westside (2000-07) and Windsor Academy (1990-99) in Macon and was head baseball coach at those schools.
Noteworthy: Daniell and Mike Swaney, the coach of Hawkinsville's new arch-rival, Marion County, were members of Robert Davis's staff at Westside for many years. They also both attended Georgia Southwestern. They've faced each other five times as head coaches in Daniell's three seasons, with Swaney winning three. But Daniell won the last meeting, in the semifinals last week.
Buddy Nobles, Irwin County
High school: Temple Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.)
College: North Florida
Record: 42-29-1 (.590)
State titles: 0
Background: Nobles came to Irwin County this season. Nobles previously was a head coach at Union County in Lake Butler, Fla. (2002-06) but has spent much of his coaching career as an assistant to Robbie Pruitt, most recently at Coffee (2012-13) but also at Fitzgerald, Union County and Jacksonville University Christian.
Noteworthy: Nobles' best player while head coach at Union County was former NFL running back and Clemson star C.J. Spiller, and the two remain close. "I'm pretty much like his extended son," Spiller once said.
Class A (private)
Jonathan Gess, Eagle's Landing Christian
High school: Clover (S.C.)
College: The Citadel
Record: 79-22 (.782)
State titles: 1 (2012 Eagle's Landing Christian)
Background: Gess, a former Air Force captain at Robins Air Force Base, was hired as ELCA's head coach in 2007 at age 28. He had been an offensive line coach and head of strength and conditioning at First Presbyterian Day School in Macon for three years.
Noteworthy: Gess, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was a three-year starting center at The Citadel.
Mitch Jordan, Mount Paran Christian
High school: Darlington
College: Georgia Tech
Record: 48-28 (.632)
State titles: 0
Background: Jordan started Mount Paran's football program in 2008. He had been a longtime assistant, most recently assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Darlington, where he played in the late 1980s.
Noteworthy: Jordan was a high school teammate at Darlington of former Florida head coach Will Muschamp. Jordan went on to Georgia Tech, where he was a member of the 1990 UPI national championship team. He started on the 1992 team but gave up football after that season because of a neck injury.
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