In one of the state’s toughest coaching jobs, he is the model of dedication
GIBSON — Parked cars and pickup trucks are bumper-to-bumper on the grassy hill next to Glascock County’s community football field.
Fans wearing bright orange and black eat at picnic tables in front of the concession stand. They line the chain link fence stretching up the hill to the bleachers, which are slowly filling up.
The Panthers, which have only had one winning season in 42 years, are warming up to take on rival Warren County. These two teams are among the four smallest schools in Georgia with football programs.
“When you’re small, there’s not a whole lot to do, and everybody wants to go to the ballgame on Friday night,” Glascock County coach Chris Kelley said. “People take more pride in their small little towns than you would if you were in Atlanta or Augusta or somewhere.”
Kelley, a native of Glascock County, is in his 24th season leading the Panthers. The 49-year-old has made a career in one of Georgia’s toughest high school football coaching jobs. The program has an all-time record of 67-303-2, and its sole winning season came in 2008.
But on this night, Kelley isn’t concerned with the program’s history.
“We’ve only beaten them one time, but this is my favorite game of the year,” Kelley said before the game. “It’s the next county over, and you know, we’ve probably played them more than anybody else we’ve ever played in school history.”
Kelley faces many challenges that larger high school football coaches don’t. There aren’t any tents or televisions on Glascock County’s sideline. No chairs for starters, recovery bikes or boosters shaking hands. One bench holds medical supplies and water for the 31 players and five coaches.
Depth isn’t just a concern — it can change an entire lineup.
Glascock County’s starting quarterback was injured the week before the Warren County game, forcing Kelley to move several players to different positions.
“That’s the part in small towns that a lot of big schools don’t have to deal with as much,” Kelley said. “You have your first string, and then most of the time, you’re going to have a definite drop-off with your second string.”
With the lack of depth and smaller pool of talent, Kelley acknowledges they approach the game from a back-to-the-basics mentality.
“You’ve got to be a lot more fundamental than a lot of people, and you’ve got to be in position,” Kelley said. “Somebody that’s a lot faster than you, they can make three wrong steps and still make a play. We make one wrong step, and we’re in trouble.”
Kelley knows Glascock County’s struggles used to be much worse. His first season playing for Glascock County after its 11-year hiatus yielded a 2-6-1 record. The Panthers went 0-27 in Kelley’s next three seasons. He played for a different head coach every year.
So when Kelley took the program over in 2002, it didn’t have much foundation. Glascock County had hired 11 coaches in 18 seasons.
Kelley’s weekly duties also outnumber many high school football coaches around the state. He takes care of the field, picks up pregame meals, sets up the lights and scoreboard, repairs sprinkler heads and washes uniforms on Sundays.
In fact, Kelley has his hand in every high school sport. He also serves as Glascock County’s athletic director.
“(Kelley) is a model of how a man works hard every day, demonstrating perseverance, dedication, and integrity both on and off the field,” Glascock County High School principal Michael Costello said. “When he is coaching, he is wide open for every second of every game, no matter what the score may be.”
Kelley also helps coach Glascock County’s youth and middle school teams, which practice after the high school does on weeknights. Kelley works 70 to 80 hours per week during football season, leaving the house at 7 a.m. and returning at 8 p.m.
“I’ve had players tell me they wouldn’t have graduated if it wasn’t for football and myself staying on to them,” Kelley said. “They kept their grades up so they could play, and then they got a diploma.”
Friday nights are a family effort for Kelley. His wife, Ashley, hasn’t missed a game in 20 years of marriage.
Ashley Kelley stitches last names on football jerseys, helps repair uniforms and contributes to pregame meals.
“She knows that you’re going to be late getting home, you’ve got meetings on Sunday, and it’s just part of it,” Kelley said. “You know, it takes a special person to give up their husband that much throughout a football season.”
Their son Brooks started working as a ball boy as a kindergartener. Now an eighth grader, Brooks Kelley is in his last year before he can play for his dad on the high school team.
For everything the Kelley family has offered Glascock County, the school has given back, too. Chris Kelley said plenty of other schools have offered him jobs throughout his career, but he only ever considered leaving once when a “bigger school” offered.
The opportunity didn’t work out for Chris Kelley, which he figures was a blessing in disguise for his family. It allowed his daughter Grace to stay at Glascock County, where she won back-to-back softball region championships in her junior and senior seasons.
She is now a sophomore pitcher for Presbyterian College, another reason Chris Kelley is happy he didn’t leave Glascock County for a better football program.
“It was very fulfilling to see her come through and have a good career and be able to play college softball,” Chris Kelley said. “Everybody wants to win, but building a program and changing lives, that’s the main thing.”
Grant Hadden, who played for Glascock County through middle school and high school, can attest to Chris Kelley’s effect on players — even long after graduation.
Hadden had fallen into a post-football depression as a student at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville. The sport that gave him direction and motivation for the last seven years was gone.
“I was going back and watching Hudl film from me playing from my high school career, and I was like, ‘Man, I missed this block,’ or ‘I didn’t read this on defense,’ and it just ate me alive,” Hadden recalled. “I wish I’d have just given so much more.”
Hadden started giving back as a volunteer football coach for Glascock County’s recreation department. It wasn’t long after that Kelley changed Hadden’s life, offering him a volunteer spot on the high school coaching staff.
It was a turning point for Hadden, who was still struggling as a junior in college.
“I was partying, I was carrying on, and I don’t know if I was trying to fill a void or what, but when I started back coaching, it settled me down,” Hadden said. “I needed to hold myself to a higher standard, even though these kids can’t see it. Like being at the bar at three o’clock in the morning, that’s not what a person who coaches high school football should be doing.
“So it kind of wound up a lot of that stuff for me and held me more accountable for stuff that I feel like was not right to begin with.”
Hadden leaned on Kelley through two of the biggest tragedies of his life. Kelley was one of Hadden’s first calls when his mother died in a plane crash in 2018, and his father died of a heart attack two years later.
“I was like, ‘Coach, you know I’ve always loved you like a daddy,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I know that,’ and he said, ‘I love you, too,’ and, yeah, I just lost it,” Hadden recalled from the phone call after the death of his dad.
Kelley continued to be there for Hadden through both losses.
“If I could pick one word to describe him, I know it sounds weird, but the word would probably just be steady,” Hadden said.
Hadden has volunteered on Kelley’s staff nearly every season since he started, coaching many of the same positions he used to play. The 29-year-old has no plans to leave Kelley’s side.
“The debt I owe to him for making me worth a crap is pretty deep, and when he leaves, I’m gone, so that’s what I tell people,” Hadden said.
Kelley has proved Glascock County can win — when the right elements fall into place.
The 2008 Panthers, led by the largest senior class in school history (14 seniors), went 8-2 and finished the year on a seven-game winning streak. Glascock County didn’t play in a region, though, so there was no postseason.
“It came down to experience,” Kelley said. “These kids had been playing football a long time, and they were just bigger and faster and stronger than most teams that we played.
“Hopefully, one day, we’ll get back to that. I just don’t know if we’ll ever have that much talent on one team again.”
The program has seen recent improvement under Kelley. The Panthers started playing in a six-team region four years ago and have made the first round of the state playoffs the last two seasons.
Glascock County had never made the state playoffs before the 2023 season.
“To be able to say that you went to the state playoffs was a huge deal for me,” Kelley said.
Kelley is aiming for a third-straight postseason appearance this year and, after that, the program’s first playoff win.
The Panthers, currently fourth in the region with a 1-2 record, have two remaining regular season games: at Johnson County and at Hancock Central, the bookends of the current region standings.
“You’ve got to have that burning desire to want to compete and to want to make kids better,” Kelley said. “If a coach ever loses his fire to want to try to compete, it’s time for him to retire, and I haven’t lost that fire.”
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
