As high school football approaches, a look back at what happened in the offseason

Georgia high school football teams practiced in pads this week, and the first games are less than two weeks away.

As the 2025 season fast approaches, here are the most interesting Georgia high school football developments since the 2024 season ended.

3 coaches retire with 744 total wins over 95 seasons

The active coaches who ranked second, third and fifth in victories last season retired.

Calvary Day’s Mark Stroud announced his decision shortly before his final game. His record was 273-111 in 33 seasons, 16 at Calvary, a Savannah school. His win total ranked second in South Georgia history behind Rich McWhorter’s 288.

Westminster’s Gerry Romberg was 239-146 with a one state title in 33 seasons, all at one school. He stepped down Dec. 18 with more victories than any other coach in Atlanta city history.

Keith Maloof of Norcross retired Dec. 4. His record was 232-103 with state championships in 2012 and 2013. His 201 wins at Norcross made him the winningest coach in Gwinnett County history.

Also retiring this offseason were Sid Maxwell (197 Georgia wins at Dawson County, Lambert and Sequoyah), Chris Kearson (112 wins, 2012 state title at ECI) and Casey Soliday (54-16 record, 2020 state title at Irwin County).

High-profile quarterbacks transfer

The most newsworthy offseason transfer, first reported Jan. 5, was that of LaDamion Guyton from Savannah Christian to Benedictine. Guyton, an edge rusher, is the consensus No. 2 junior prospect in the country.

More trendy, however, was the movement of blue-chip quarterbacks.

Teddy Jarrard, who led North Cobb Christian to the Class 3A-A Private semifinals as a sophomore, is now at North Cobb. He committed to Notre Dame in July.

Darnell Kelly left Peachtree Ridge for Hughes. Kelly is committed to Colorado State. Michael Johnson of Dutchtown is now at Douglas County. He is committed to Utah.

Mason Holtzclaw is in line to replace Julian Lewis at Carrollton. He comes from Christ School in Asheville, North Carolina, and holds offers from Georgia Tech and Florida State. Derrick Baker, a junior from St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is now at Milton. He’s an uncommitted consensus top-500 national prospect.

D.J. Hunter, who is committed to Kentucky, transferred to Buford from Bearden High in Knoxville. Buford’s incumbent quarterback, senior Dayton Raiola, originally from Arizona, is committed to Nebraska.

Surprising coaching changes

It’s not unusual for winning coaches to move on, but it’s usually on their terms. This offseason was marked by mutual partings and forced evacuations of prominent coaching figures.

The most notable was Greg Vandagriff. His nine-year record at Prince Avenue Christian was 107-16 with 2020, 2022 and 2023 Class A championships. On Feb. 10, Prince Avenue promoted offensive coordinator Jon Richt, the son of former Georgia coach Mark Richt. Vandagriff, who resigned privately the previous week, was announced days later as head coach at Lakeway Christian near his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Also out under imperfect terms this offseason were Appling County’s Jordan Mullis (42-11 record marked best four-year run in school history), Jones County’s Mike Chastain (56-20, three region titles over six seasons), Cedartown’s Jamie Abrams (50-12, three region titles over five seasons), Commerce’s Mark Hollars (31-16, one region title over four seasons), Dutchtown’s Niketa Battle (25-13, one region title over three seasons), Greene County’s Terrence Banks (24-10 in three seasons compared to 7-22 the previous three) and Rabun County’s Michael Davis (27-10, one region title in three seasons).

2 state-title winning coaches leave town

Two coaches who won state titles in December won’t be found on Georgia sidelines this season.

In February, Jonathan Gess, of the Class 3A-A Private champion Hebron Christian, left for his home state, South Carolina, to coach Southside Christian. Gess won Hebron’s first state title after winning Eagle’s Landing Christian’s first six. Hebron hired Kenny Dallas from Trinity Christian.

In May, Carver of Columbus coach Pierre Coffey stepped down to become principal at Stewart County, a school of fewer than 200 students. Carver had just won its second state title, first since 2007. His replacement is former Carver, Georgia and NFL player Jarvis Jones, who played on that 2007 team. The two were among the 87 offseason hires, which is typical turnover.

Apalachee coach steps down, citing PTSD in wake of shooting

Citing PTSD, anxiety, grief and depression, Mike Hancock resigned Feb. 28 as coach at Apalachee, the Barrow County school that was the site of Sept. 4 shooting that left two students and two educators dead.

One of those killed was Richard Aspinwall, Hancock’s defensive coordinator and close friend. Hancock’s resignation wasn’t surprising. His courage to share his reasons were admirable. Hancock confided that he was suffering from PTSD, depression, grief and anxiety.

“Football coaches are prideful men,” Hancock told the AJC in his first published interview after the resignation. “Coaches that struggle mentally too often times don’t want to talk about it. We don’t want to admit when we’re weak and vulnerable. I needed to let my pride down and get the help I needed.”

Hancock is still teaching in the Barrow County school system. He is not coaching this season.

Appling County forfeits 10 games, hires new coach

Appling County lost its final appeal April 22 and was forced to forfeit its 10 victories for use of an ineligible player in 2024. The violation occurred after Appling County offensive line coach Ian Silberman, a former NFL player hired in January 2024, ran a February camp in Florida that the player attended. Days later, the player transferred to Appling County. That constitutes undue influence under GHSA rules. Appling County, a Class 2A semifinalist, became the third football team in GHSA history to forfeit as many as 10 victories, joining Waycross in 1990 and Brunswick in 1994.

Appling County coach Jordan Mullis’ contract was non-renewed in the fallout. Appling County moved quickly to hire Fitzgerald’s Tucker Pruitt on April 29.

Smart, Newton voted into High School Football HOF

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and former NFL MVP and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton were announced April 24 to be among 33 inductees into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame. Also part of the 2025 class will be NBA legend Walt Frazier of Atlanta’s old Howard High, former Falcons and Georgia Tech star Keith Brooking of East Coweta and 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame honoree Sterling Sharpe of Glennville.

The hall-of-fame board also selected two historic teams for special recognition: 1971 Valdosta and 1976 Warner Robins. The induction will take place Oct. 25 at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.

23 former Georgia players go in NFL draft

Twenty-three former Georgia high school players went in the NFL draft April 25-27. That was the third most among states and more than Georgia’s 21.3 average for the past 10 years.

Georgia finished second among states if counting homegrown players. Three of Florida’s 26 players came from elsewhere to finish their careers at boarding school IMG Academy.

Georgia players selected in the first round were Collins Hill’s Travis Hunter, Hardaway’s Mykel Williams and Jefferson’s Malaki Starks, all former AJC Super 11 players.

Reclass committee spurns competitive balance

The GHSA’s reclassification committee met five times this offseason, probably the most in history, with the goal of ensuring that any good ideas to classify the GHSA’s 456 member schools got a hearing.

The most-discussed idea was competitive balance, a model the GHSA’s executive director endorsed that would classify schools based primarily on sports success and not enrollment.

Another proposal sought to trim the GHSA’s classes to four from seven while still having eight state-playoff brackets chosen by power rankings.

In the end, the committee voted June 4 to stick with the current model — which places private schools below Class 4A in a private-only playoff division — through 2027-28. The committee also endorsed using power rankings in every class for playoff selection and seeding. The final reclass plan will be decided by the GHSA’s executive committee in October.

GHSA tightens transfer rules

The GHSA’s board of trustees in voted June 4 to tighten its transfer rules to make ineligible any athletes who change schools twice after entering ninth grade.

The board also voted to require that schools send the GHSA copies of driver’s licenses, utility bills and lease agreements from the families of transferring athletes to prove they have moved into their new school zones and relinquished previous residences.

“Academically, it’s not good to have a lot of moves,” GHSA executive director Tim Scott told the AJC. “We understand some students have to move for many reasons, but we want to continue to stress we’re education-based, and the most important thing is to prepare students for post-secondary education.”

Georgia loses a coaching legend

Georgia football lost one of its most beloved and successful coaches on July 1, when T. McFerrin died at age 83.

Across 38 seasons, McFerrin’s career record was 341-101-4. He won historic first state championships at Elbert County (1995) and Jefferson (2012) before retiring after the 2012 season.

McFerrin is the only coach in Georgia history to lead seven schools to region titles, five to state semifinals or four to championship games.

Shannon Jarvis was 20-year former Georgia head coach who played and coached under McFerrin. “I got to play for him and coach for him, and I got to experience both sides,” Jarvis said. “And the simplest way I can say it is that he’s as great a human being that I have ever known.”

State’s No. 1 recruit chooses Texas

Grayson’s Tyler Atkinson, the state No. 1 senior prospect, committed to Texas on July 15. He was the AJC’s Class 6A Defensive Player of the Year last season. Atkinson, a linebacker, was the last of the consensus top-10 Georgia player to make a public decision.