Earwood to coach Our Lady of Mercy football

Faced with losing his job at Starr's Mill over cuts in part-time teachers, Mike Earwood has accepted the position of head coach at Our Lady of Mercy, a Class A school in Fairburn.

Earwood is the only coach that Starr's Mill has known. The Fayette County school has advanced at least one round in the state playoffs six times in Earwood's 12 seasons. Earwood also coached 10 seasons at Cartersville (1996-95) and won a Class AA title in 1991.

But tough economic times have prompted the Fayette County school board to target part-time (or 49 percent) teachers as part of $11 million in projected cuts next year.

"I was told that if had another job offer, I needed to take it," said Earwood, who added that he was eager over the opportunity to move and understanding of the school board's dilemma with semi-retired and part-time teachers. "It just gets political when you've got teachers that are unemployed and you're hiring a football coach over them. I got caught in the crossfire over that."

Our Lady of Mercy, a private Catholic school, was 2-8 the past two seasons under Chad Flatt, who had resigned.

Earwood said he was excited to return to a small-school setting, similar to his first job at Cartersville, only smaller.

"I coached AA for 10 years and loved every minute of it," Earwood said. "When it gets down to the end of the day, it's all football. We've got a ways to go. We've got only 32 players on the roster. But they like their football, and they would like to be as good as they can be in Class A. We've got some athletes. We just need to get the numbers up."