Today’s interviewee is Jenkins County coach Charley Waters, whose team defeated then-No. 6 Johnson County 28-26 in a Class A Division II game. Jenkins County is now No. 10, its first AJC/GHSF Daily ranking since 1999. Waters was the Eagles’ coach from 2014 to 2018 and returned in 2022, when he led them to their first winning season since 2017. He has been a coach or teacher at his alma mater since 1996.
1. What happened in Friday night’s game? “It was a hard-hitting battle. It felt like a playoff atmosphere except that it felt like it was 100 degrees. We were talking about it on the ride home and saying there are usually two or three times in any game where there’s a big hit and everybody goes ‘Ooooh.’ In this game, everybody was going ‘Ooooh’ every third or fourth play on both sides. It was really physical. I don’t want to speak for Johnson County, but I felt we couldn’t get our offense in rhythm because it was so back and forth. We had a punt return for a touchdown. We had a turnover for a [Johnson County] touchdown. They were up 26-12 with 4:19 left, and our kids rallied up. They didn’t give up, that’s for sure. We went on a drive and scored and went for two and made it 26-20 with 1:56 to play. We tried on onside kick, didn’t get it, but we held them on four downs. On about our 25, on the first play, we throw a switch route and score. Our receiver [Z.Z. Williams] caught it running a wheel route. Their guy bit the wrong guy, and we hit him. It was a great pass [from Christian Wilson]. That made it 26-26. We go for two, get it and go up 28-26. It was a great game for both teams as far as effort. Very well-coached and hard-fought.”
2. What would you want people to know about your team this season? “We’re a team that plays really hard. We’re going to play until the end. We try to have good sportsmanship all the time. We’re a flex-bone wing-T team. We love to throw, but we love to run it, too. We try to run it and play old-school football.”
3. You were Jenkins County’s coach for a few years, then left, now back. Why did you leave and return? And what have you and your staff tried to instill since you returned? “I took a couple of years off just to be with my family in 2018, and when the coach retired, they asked me to come back. It’s just home. I didn’t know if I would be a head coach again, but I enjoy it. I knew all the kids because I still taught here. I talked with my family and the coaches, and they were all for it, so I came back.
“I wanted to bring back the flex-bone and what we did the first stint. I have most of the staff I had the first time. I have a new guy, Roy Clayton, and I actually played high school with him. He played at Georgia Southern. Hil Johnson is the offensive coordinator and Jason Boynton the defensive coordinator. We’re all from here. What we really stress is the weight room and kids who want to be good in the classroom. We pull the grades on the kids every Monday and hold them accountable. That’s the kind of kids we want to play. Weight room, classroom and attitude. That gives them the opportunity to get out of this small town and be somebody or come back and be somebody if they want.”
4. What would you want people to know about Jenkins County and Millen? “It’s a small rural farming town where people work hard. It’s a town stuck between Augusta and Savannah and Statesboro and Waynesboro. It’s got two stop lights in it. You can pass through it and won’t know it unless you get a speeding ticket. They love football here. They love our school. We get great support.”
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