Since the final horn blew on the 2023 high school football season, the GHSA has hired a new executive director, warned athletes about illegal NIL deals and given football teams Thanksgiving week off for the first time in more than 100 years. Seventy-four GHSA teams hired coaches, one after a 300-game winner retired, another when a coach with five state titles unretired. Then there was the shocking news from Maryland that a coach of a top-10 Georgia team had been indicted on murder charges. With just 13 days from the opening kickoff, here are the 12 most intriguing stories of the 2023 season.
*Carrollton quarterback Julian Lewis announced Jan. 16 that he was reclassifying and graduating early, meaning this will be his final high school season. No Georgia player since Trevor Lawrence entered his freshman year more celebrated, and Lewis has delivered, throwing for 7,212 yards and 96 touchdowns and winning 25 of his 28 starts while building the most lucrative NIL profile of any Georgia high school athlete. Lewis is committed to Southern Cal. Reclassifying is rare in Georgia but not unprecedented. In 2022, another five-star Georgia recruit, Milton defensive tackle L.T. Overton, reclassified to sign early with Texas A&M, but unlike Lewis’s decision, it came after playing his final season.
*Camden County’s Jeff Herron, the only GHSA coach to win state titles at three schools, announced his retirement Jan. 26. Herron’s Camden County teams, known for their clock-hogging wing-T offenses and physical defenses, won state titles in the highest classification in 2003, 2008 and 2009. Herron also won state championships at Oconee County in 1999 and Grayson in 2016. Herron’s coaching record was 324-69 in 32 seasons, 309-67 in Georgia. Some other coaches who retired this offseason were Tony Kramer of Greenbrier, Mike McDonald of Northgate, Brian Allison of East Forsyth, Chad Phillips of Starr’s Mill, Phil Marino of Columbus, Russ Murray of Charlton County, Dexter Copeland of Macon County and Terry Crowder of King’s Ridge Christian.
*Carl Kearney Jr., the coach who led Spalding to a remarkable turnaround and 12-1 finish in 2023, was charged with murder Feb. 19 in the strangulation death of 38-year-old Patrina Best in Maryland. Kearney turned himself in to police, who then conducted a welfare check and discovered Best’s body. Kearney, a Griffin High graduate and former Georgia Southern player, was the winner of GHSF Daily’s Class 4A coaches award for the most improved winning team following the 2021 and 2023 seasons. He was given his latest award in Macon just days before his arrest. On April 19, Spalding hired an old friend, Nick Davis, a Griffin native and former Spalding coach, to lead and heal the program.
*John Adams, who won two state titles in his three seasons as Cedar Grove’s coach, announced March 3 that he would be joining Georgia State’s staff under new coach Dell McGee. Adams was on Cedar Grove’s staff for its five state championships since 2016. He was the third Cedar Grove coach after Miguel Patrick and Jimmy Smith to leave for a college gig. Unlike previous hires, Cedar Grove went outside the program and picked Dougherty defensive coordinator Roderick Moore as Adams’ successor on March 29. Moore grew up and coached in DeKalb County, but his job will be challenging. Star quarterback E.J. Colson graduated early, and three other all-state players – running back Bo Walker, wide receiver Devin Carter and defensive lineman Javon Beckford – have transferred.
*The 2023 state finals in Mercedes-Benz Stadium drew records crowds, but they earned 54% less on average because of higher rent, the AJC and GHSF Daily reported March 4. The 16 finalists’ average disbursement was $9,795 compared to $21,068 in 2022. Bowdon coach Rich Fendley said his program made four times as much in the semifinals. “It’s awesome to play in that venue,” he said of the Benz, “but ... you really would like to find a way to make a bigger paycheck when you play for a state championship.” Others didn’t mind. “I believe the experience at the Benz far outweighs the financial gain or loss,” Prince Avenue Christian coach Greg Vandagriff said. “I would believe our players would say the same. It’s just something about playing inside and where the big games are played.”
*The GHSA’s board of trustees on March 18 named Dalton Public Schools superintendent Tim Scott as the lone candidate to succeed the retiring Robin Hines as executive director. Scott was voted in April 15 and began July 1. Hines, who had announced his intention to retire in November, finished a seven-year run during which he aptly guided schools through the COVID-19 year of 2020, made health and safety a priority and strengthened relationships with a General Assembly that had forced the ouster of his predecessor, Gary Phillips, in 2017. Hines was the first executive director not hired from within. Scott was the second. Scott was Dalton’s superintendent since 2018. He was had been a principal at Douglas County, Dublin and Northside of Warner Robins. He’s a former Warner Robins football player and coach and member of West Georgia’s 1982 Division II national championship team.
*Maurice Freeman, a 250-game winner who led alma mater Brooks County to state titles in 1993 and 2021, resigned March 30 and later took a job at Daleville in Alabama. Brooks County football had become synonymous with its coach and his rallying cry, “Bring That Hammer.” Freeman’s win total ranked third among active GHSA coaches. Freeman’s move was probably the most surprising among coaches going to another high school, although Jaybo Shaw from Wayne County to Greenville, S.C., and Jeff Littleton from Bainbridge to Tift County ranked up there, along with state finalists Stephen Holmes of Manchester going to Pike County and Thomas Clark of Stockbridge going to Jackson. There were 74 offseason GHSA coaching changes, the lowest total in 15 years. GHSF Daily will report each new hire with the whereabouts of the former coaches over the first seven issues.
*Twenty-three former Georgia players were taken in the NFL Draft, held April 25-27 in Detroit. That’s average for the past decade and ranked third nationally behind Florida (30) and Texas (24) this year. Going in the first round were Bleckley County’s Amarius Mims and Westlake’s Nate Wiggins. Most of the 23 were not elite recruits coming out of high school. One, Qwan’tez Stiggers, was an unranked prospect on a high school team, Atlanta’s B.E.S.T. Academy, that had only 27 players. He didn’t play in college and was discovered in an indoor league before playing cornerback in the CFL.
*Two Class A schools from bordering south Georgia counties announced big hires May 1-2. Lanier County struck first, hiring David Dean, the coach who won Division II national titles at Valdosta State in 2007 and 2012. Dean had been at West Georgia since 2013 and had a 127-47 career record. The next day, Clinch County got Jim Dickerson out of retirement. Dickerson led Clinch County to five Class A titles this century before hanging up his whistle five years ago. Dickerson is replacing Don Tison Jr., who had a 44-18 record in six seasons, including an 11-2 finish in 2023. Dickerson, officially an interim coach, says he will probably evaluate his future a year at a time.
*On May 23, the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame announced its 2024 class to be inducted in October. Nine are former Georgia players; eight played at Georgia Tech. The 30 players span nearly 100 years from Riverside Military’s Everett Strupper, an All-America halfback on Georgia Tech’s 1917 national championship team, to Lassiter’s Hutson Mason and Newnan’s Alec Ogletree, whose final high school seasons were 2009. Other notable choices were former all-class players of the year Joe Burns of Thomas County Central and Tray Blackmon of LaGrange, former Georgia quarterback David Greene of South Gwinnett and College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles of Decatur.
*This season’s championship games will be played Dec. 16-18, five days later than last season, and the five playoff rounds will have an unprecedented Thanksgiving week off, the GHSA confirmed to GHSF Daily on May 31. The playoff dates will be Nov. 8-9 (first round), Nov. 15 (second round), Nov. 22 (third round), Dec. 6 (semifinals) and Dec. 16-18 (finals). The Thanksgiving break is likely a one-time thing related to the SEC Championship game being played at Mercedes-Benz on Dec. 7, which is later than usual and determines when the GHSA can have the Benz. This will be the first GHSA season without a Thanksgiving week game since 1905, according to GHSFHA records.
*The GHSA amended its bylaws July 17 to make clear that NIL (name, image and likeness) collectives that pay athletes are illegal and can cost students their eligibility. The amendment defines a collective as “any group organized or existing for the purpose of compensating or benefiting an individual student-athlete or a group of student-athletes of a member school.” Athletes may use NIL to endorse or promote products and businesses, but they cannot earn money from fans and boosters for playing sports. “People are confusing high school NIL rules and what’s happening in the NCAA with collectives and the transfer portal,” Hines said. “We don’t have either of those things. NIL clubs and collectives have no place in the high school space.” Hines told GHSF Daily that only 87 GHSA athletes signed NIL deals during 2023-24.
Produced by Georgia High School Football Daily, a free e-mail newsletter. To join the mailing list, click here.
About the Author
