Ex-Georgia HS football coach sentenced after taking $24K in booster funds

Former Georgia high school football coach Mike Chastain pleaded guilty Friday to tax evasion after taking thousands of dollars from the Jones County Touchdown Club.

According to District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale, an investigation into missing funds began in January, which led to the discovery that Chastain made unauthorized withdrawals from the booster club’s bank account for three years, totaling more than $24,000.

In Jones County Superior Court, Chastain entered an Alford plea, meaning he pleaded guilty and acknowledged the evidence against him but maintains his innocence. Chastain, who was hired as the Jones County football coach in 2019, was sentenced to five years of probation.

In court, he gave a touchdown club representative a check for the full amount of the missing funds. The terms of his sentencing included that probation would end upon repayment, Barksdale said, meaning that Chastain would likely be off probation “by end of this week.”

Chastain resigned from his position at Jones County in January. The school’s athletic director, Chad Alligood, also resigned then, after a board of education hearing where community members expressed displeasure with Chastain.

The AJC has reached out to Chastain for comment.

Chastain provided a statement to WMAZ saying, in part, that he “did not intentionally break any rules or laws.”