Paulding County High has advanced in the football state playoffs only one time in 40 years. Only 10 of its teams have had winning seasons. Only one player has made first-team all-state.
So it will come as a surprise to many, perhaps even to Paulding County itself, that the school is the cradle of high school football coaches in Georgia.
The school has graduated seven current high school head coaches, six in Georgia. No other school has more than four in Georgia.
“This is very interesting,” said Paulding County graduate Adam Carter, the former Camden County defensive coordinator hired this year as head coach at Bradwell Institute. “I would not say there was anything specifically about Paulding County High School that led to seven of us coaching, but I can tell you the coaches and the administration when I was there made a great influence on my life and career choice. Football and coaching young people are my passion.”
And so it has been for six others Paulding County grads.
They include Brent Budde of Woodstock, Scott Hendrix of Cedartown, J.B. Arnold of Jefferson County, Ken Cofer of Cook and Jon Lindsey of Irwin County. A seventh Paulding County graduate, Cameron Pettus, is head coach at Belleville West in Illinois.
The six in Georgia are spread from Bradwell on the Georgia coast to Cedartown near the Alabama border. Irwin County and Cook are in South Georgia. Jefferson County is near Augusta. Only Budde at Woodstock remains in metro Atlanta. There is one Paulding County grad coaching in each of the six classifications in Georgia, and four of the six have had their teams ranked in the Top 10 at some point this season.
“Wow, I had no idea we were in each classification,” Cofer said. “I pull for them every week. I look up scores every Saturday, and the other five (in Georgia) will be the first I look up. They all definitely have my support. Except for J.B. when we play each other.”
Cofer’s Cook team plays Arnold and Jefferson County on Friday in a non-region game for the second consecutive year. The series marks the only time Paulding County graduates have faced one another as head coaches.
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