Lake Oconee Academy girls’ soccer coach Jacob Baxley recently announced that he has taken another job at Clarke Central High School in Athens.
He will be the new CCHS girls’ soccer coach and will also be teaching at the school in the fall.
For Baxley, it was a hard decision to make, especially because he loved his position at LOA.
“It all came together when I saw the job opening for the varsity girls position at Clarke Central,” Baxley said. “I’ve been following the school for years because that’s where I did my student teaching when I was in college at UGA.”
Baxley planned on staying at LOA until he saw this new opportunity surface.
“I really enjoyed the school when I was there,” Baxley said. “I always dreamed of working there one day. It wasn’t quite a planned decision but I jumped on it.”
Still, at the end of the day, Baxley admitted that it was a tough decision to make.
“LOA was the first school that I have worked at out of college, and there’s a lot of really good people that work there,” Baxley added. “I made a lot of great friends with the teachers and staff during the four years that I was there.”
He highlighted that he also got a chance to work with some great student-athletes as well.
“I built strong relationships with the people (at LOA), which I will miss in the future,” Baxley said. “However, it was too good of an opportunity to turn down.”
Baxley was the Lady Titans’ head coach for the past two seasons. He led them to two straight GHSA Class A-Public playoff berths and advanced as far as the second round.
He served as an assistant coach under former head coach and current Lake Oconee Academy athletic director Chris Ingle before taking over at the helm.
Baxley also helped coach boys’ basketball under former head coach Michael Brooker, whose wife Julie was the boys’ soccer head coach until 2021.
He said that he learned a lot from Ingle and Brooker about being a coach.
“They were both such great coaches and amazing individuals,” he said. “I got to learn a lot about how to run a team and a program. Just watching those two - they were both great mentors - and even better examples. They cared a lot about their jobs and built strong relationships with their players.”
Baxley also praised boys’ golf head coach Ricardo Patton, who he coached and worked with at the school.
“He’s such an experienced coach and great person,” Baxley said. “Overall, I was very lucky with my time at LOA to have so many people to look up to.”
Despite his departure, he still believes that the Lady Titans’ soccer program will succeed.
“I was lucky when I took over the position because the program was already established and well-respected,” Baxley said. “They already had a great reputation there when I was an assistant. So, I feel like we’ve made great progress over the last couple of seasons, especially after the core group graduated and moved on. I think we’ve reached a point (with the younger players) in the program where it is set up for success in the near future.”