Brookwood hired Philip Jones this week to replace the retiring Mark Crews as football coach.
Jones was a member of Brookwood’s 1996 state-championship team and returned to Brookwood as an assistant two seasons ago after two years as a head coach at Banks County.
Jones’ father, Tom Jones, has been a Brookwood assistant since the 1980s, and the opportunity to coach with his father was a reason for coming back.
Philip Jones is the fifth Brookwood graduate who is a head football coach in Georgia. They others are older brother Tommy Jones at Dacula, Andy Dyer at Archer, John Ford at Roswell and Heath Hinton at Lakeside-DeKalb.
Crews’ teams were 112-48 in 13 seasons and won a state title in 2010. Brookwood was 2-8 in 2014, its first losing season since 1986.
Several other Georgia schools made hires or had reported openings in the past week.
Johns Creek hired Pope coach Matt Kemper to replace Mike Cloy, who started the program in 2009. Johns Creek was 9-2 and 8-3 in 2011 and 2012 but went 1-19 the past two seasons. Pope was 39-35 in seven seasons under Kemper, peaking at 10-2 in 2011.
Whitefield Academy coach Jimmy Fields has left after eight seasons to take the head coaching position at Trinity Christian, a Georgia Independent School team in Dublin.
Union Grove hired Hampton athletics director Craig Melton to replace Paul Burgdorf. Melton had been an assistant at Union Grove and Locust Grove before moving to Hampton when that school opened last August.
Loganville coach Mike Parris has retired. Parris was 168-89 in a 23-season career highlighted by state-semifinal finishes at Jackson in 2000 and Forest Park in 1995.
Habersham Central hired Jackson County coach Benji Harrison to replace Michael Pollock, whose teams were 1-19 in two seasons. Harrison was 12-20 in three seasons at Jackson County. He had been offensive coordinator at Flowery Branch.
Cook promoted defensive coordinator Bobby Jones to replace Jon Lindsey, who took the East Coweta job. Jones had been an assistant at Cook for 19 seasons.
Four Georgia players are Parade All-Americans
Three Georgia players have made the Parade All-America football team. They are defensive lineman Trent Thompson of Westover, offensive linemenn Mitch Hyatt of North Gwinnett and Chuma Odoga of McEachern, and defensive back A.J. Gray of Washington County. Thompson signed with Georgia, Hyatt with Clemson, Odoga with Southern Cal and Gray with Georgia Tech. Hughes defensive lineman D’Andre Walker, who signed with Georgia, and Macon County linebacker Roquan Smith, who signed with UCLA, was honorable mention.
GHSA announces basketball semifinal sites
The GHSA has named the venues for the state basketball tournament semifinals. They are Georgia Tech (Class AAAAAA), Fort Valley State (AAAAA), West Georgia (AAAA), Columbus State (AAA and AA), Kennesaw State (A private) and Armstrong State (A public). All will be played Feb. 28 except for AA, which will be played Feb. 27. The championship games will be played March 5-7 at the Macon Centreplex. The semifinals and finals were played at the same site and week until the 2012-13 season, when the GHSA added a sixth classification and split Class A into public and private divisions, making for 14 state champions instead of 10. The GHSA also lost Gwinnett Arena as avenue.
MaxPreps names three baseball All-Americans
Three Georgia baseball players made MaxPreps’ preseason All-America team announced this week. They are Eagle’s Landing Christian outfielder Dazmon Cameron, King’s Ridge Christian first baseman Brandt Stallings and Wesleyan outfielder Jahmai Jones. Cameron is rated the No. 2 high school prospect in the country by Perfect Game. Stallings hit over .500 with 10 home runs last season in leading King’s Ridge to the Class A private-school championship. Jones hit .467 with 10 home runs last season.
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