Our Lady of Mercy head football coach Mike Earwood, whose 216 victories ranked sixth among active coaches, has retired.
Credit: Todd Holcomb
Credit: Todd Holcomb
Earwood led Cartersville to its first state championship in 1991, started the program at Starr’s Mill in Fayette County in 1998 and finished his career at Our Lady, a Class A school in Fairburn.
Earwood began coaching in 1978 as an assistant at his alma mater North Clayton. He was talked into it by his high school coach Jimmy Clepper just as Earwood was about to begin a management program at the Hapeville Ford Motor plant in Hapeville.
Earwood’s coaching career spanned 37 seasons, six seasons at West Georgia College. That included 1982, when the school won a Division III national title. Earwood came to Cartersville as an assistant in 1986.
In 1991, Cartersville won the Class AA title. Earwood's offensive coordinator was Hal Lamb, whom Earwood had coached at West Georgia.
Earwood’s record was 34-28 at Our Lady and 216-114-1 overall.
Earwood called the challenge at Our Lady to be as great as any that he'd faced and found Class A private powers such as Southside rival Eagle's Landing Christian to be much more talented than he imagined. He related that to Christopher Dunn of the Fayette News in a lengthy interview.
“When I came to Single A private, I had no idea what I was walking into,’’ Earwood said. “I will you tell you now that I have seen more Division I players on this level in six years than I saw in 13 years at Starr’s Mill.’’
In other recent coaching changes ...
*Mark Stroud has left Calvary Day in Savannah to become head coach at Swainsboro. Stroud was 67-25 in eight seasons at Calvary Day, a school that had won only two games in the two seasons before Stroud got the job. Calvary averaged 10 wins over Stroud’s final five seasons. Swainsboro has gone 5-6 the past two seasons and failed to have a winning season since the 10-1 finish of 2010.
*Grovetown has promoted defensive coordinator Damien Postell to replace Rodney Holder, who started the program in 2009. Postell is a former Auburn running back (1998-2001) who starred at Baldwin (Fla.) High outside of Jacksonville. Grovetown is 29-41 in its six seasons, 5-5 in 2015.
*Central-Carroll has hired Elbert County offensive coordinator Larry Kesler to replace Rico Zackery, who took a job on the staff at Georgia Southern. Kesler, a former Elbert County quarterback, also has coached at Northwest Whitfield and Villa Rica. Central was 30-6 under Zackery, by far the school’s best three-year run since its state championship teams in 1986 and 1987.
*Rutland in Macon has hired Schley County head coach Mark Daniel to replace George Collins, who retired. Daniel is 77-68 in 13 seasons as a head coach. He won a state title with Screven County in 2002. Rutland, which opened in 2003, has had only two winning seasons and never advanced in the playoffs. The team finished 1-9 in 2015.
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