Editor’s Note: The Lake Oconee News is doing a three-part series called ‘State of the Program’ that will recap each area school’s year in sports. The series will include interviews and thoughts from the athletic directors at Lake Oconee Academy, Greene County High School and Morgan County High School. The LON will continue with Greene County High School in this week’s edition.
When Eddie Hood was hired as Greene County High School’s athletic director last summer, he wanted to change the culture of its sports program.
Hood was recently promoted to be the school’s new principal. However, he believes that he has already helped progress the Tigers’ athletic department into a new direction heading into the 2022-23 academic school year.
“During your first year, you always like to observe,” Hood said. “You also like to figure out what’s going on, and what the culture of the school is. Quickly, I realized that we needed a culture change in our athletic department. I also focused on branding. I wanted to make sure that we were set up for the upcoming school year. A lot of it (last year) was just observing and trying to figure out what the culture change (of the program) needed to be.”
The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected Greene County’s athletic department during the 2020-21 academic year. So, for Hood, it was all about helping the Tigers’ athletic programs ‘reset’ after dealing with many obstacles.
He explained that he wanted to make sure every team saw success in 2021-22.
“I thought some of our teams were very competitive,” Hood said. “Even so, we needed a culture change, as far as development, and other stuff like that.”
One main concern was that there wasn’t enough participation in women’s athletics. So, he decided that starting a volleyball program would increase morale.
“Creating volleyball helped drive participation up in our women’s athletic program,” Hood said. “We had about 40 girls come out and make the team.”
Out of all of Greene County’s athletic programs in the 2021-22 school year, the track and field team had the most success under long-time head coach James Miller.
The boys’ team placed first at the Region 8A-Public meet, and the girls’ squad finished second. Also, senior Kzon Dennis won state in the 1600-meter race.
“Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with our track and field program,” Hood said. “Our boys’ team had a strong showing at the state meet and placed. On the other hand, the girls had a great outing in the regional meet this year.”
Another program that saw success was the girls’ basketball team under the direction of Derek Williams. Despite not making the Class A-Public state playoffs, the Lady Tigers had double-digit wins for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
In 2022-23, Greene County will return a lot of its roster after only losing one player to graduation this past spring. The Lady Tigers will also hope to top their historic 2021-22 season as Williams heads into year two of calling the shots.
Towards the end of the fall semester, Hood replaced longtime Tigers’ football coach Larry Milligan with former Newton County head coach Terrance Banks. Also, he hired former Brookwood High School head coach Mark Wright to coach boys’ basketball after Duane Kelley was let go after one season.
Hood highlighted that he is excited about the new changes.
“I am expecting big things from our athletic department, especially with all the new hires,” Hood said. “With the reset, I think this past year was just seeing where we are (as a program). The adjustments have already been made. We have hired a new basketball coach to develop our kids, and our new football coach already has the players on the right path. I think we’re on an upswing.”
As far as spring sports go, many of the programs didn’t have success. Both the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams combined the win one game this past school year. The Greene County baseball team also ended its season winless.
Hood said that he worked with the coaches of all three teams to see what needed to be done in order to succeed. He added that despite not having much success, he saw a lot of improvement throughout the season from all three teams.
“They all did a great job with the facilities, player development and participation,” Hood said. “Our programs are starting to become more self-sufficient and not dependent on the athletic department to fund everything. Across the board, our coaches are learning to be more self-sufficient and build programs. In order to be successful, you have to have ownership from coaches within their programs. That’s the mindset we want to have.”
Hood explained that the Tigers’ baseball program was a prime example of that mindset.
“They have come a long way,” Hood said. “With fundraising and improvement to participation on the field. Soccer is on the way there as well.”
GCHS didn’t have a boys’ soccer team in 2020-21 due to the low number of kids coming out. However, the Tigers brought out more than a dozen players in 2021-22. So, for them to win even one game, was an improvement to Hood.
“It was great to see,” Hood said. “The self-sufficiency piece is also coming. With the reset from COVID, the building blocks are certainly in place for next year.”
Hood also hopes that a sport like wrestling can see more success in 2022-23. The program only had five participants last season, and three of them qualified for the GHSA Class A-Public state sectionals.
“Two of them (GCHS wrestlers) went on to state,” Hood said. “So, for sheer numbers, that was great. Last year (20-21), we didn’t have anybody participating in wrestling. It was on the books, but to have five kids come out, and for three of them to make it to state sectionals, I thought it was a tremendous gain.”
Overall, Hood stated that he thinks the results from the shift of culture will show in 2022-23.
“I’d say, for the most part, the coaches are on our board with the culture change,” Hood said. “They see the need because they care about the community and the kids. I expect to see vast improvements next year based on creating a culture of care. The kids have already bought in as well.”