-
MCHS athletic director Doug Connelly
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 Morgan County High School in this week’s edition.
The Morgan County High School athletic program excelled “across the board” during the 2021-22 academic year.
Eight Bulldogs’ athletic teams won GHSA Region 4-AAA championships last year: boys/girls cross country, volleyball, competition cheer, wrestling (traditional), girls’ tennis, and boys/girls soccer. There were also two individual state championships won as boys’ track and field athlete Josh Jones brought home the gold in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, respectively.
Additionally, boys’ soccer player Cooper Allen was named Region 4-AAA Player of the Year, and girls’ golfer Reagan Folk earned the Area 1 -AAA girls golf individual low-medalist award. Plus, nearly 100 Bulldogs athletes from various sports across the program earned GHSA All-Region honors last year.
MCHS athletic director Doug Connelly described the program’s success as “mile-wide and inch-deep.”
“I think for a school our size, we offer a lot of programs, and a lot of opportunities for our students to get involved with athletic activities,” Connelly said. “The wide range of success we’ve had across the board shows that while we’re offering a lot of opportunities, we’re also offering quality programs for our kids to get involved in. Some schools are only known for their baseball, basketball, softball or football programs. However, we’ve had sustained success across a wide range of sports. As both an athletic director and as a parent, I am proud that we can offer that to our students.”
According to Connelly, the school’s success is because of its “dedicated” coaching staff.
He highlighted that MCHS’ accomplishments are mainly because of the “longevity” of the head coaches throughout the various sports that the program has.
“When you have that longevity and someone that is constantly at the top leading the ship… it’s critical,” he said. “…If you have a lot of turnover, then that person at the top is constantly bringing in a new message. It’s hard to build momentum that way. Nevertheless, when you have the same person who is leading the ship, preaching the same message, and having a vision for the program, it creates an opportunity for the kids to build and sustain success. … That’s what I feel like we’ve had here at Morgan County for the past few years.”
Despite retaining a majority of its head coaches, the Morgan County athletic program will have a few fresh faces on its staff heading into 2022-23.
The girls’ basketball team is now led by Milfred Franklin after former head coach Timothy Roop stepped down to take an administrative role at the middle school. Also, the boys’ basketball team recently lost long-time head coach Jamond Sims, who led the program to two state titles in 2016 and 2019.
Connelly believes that Franklin is the “right fit” for the position and can succeed.
“Milfred has been around here for a long time,” he said. “He’s a guy that has coached at multiple levels. He’s also been on the varsity bench, coaching in multiple state championship games. Milfred left for a couple of years, got some great experience, and coached our middle school boys’ team this past season. Obviously, they had a great run. He’s a guy that has been around a lot of success over the years. I think he is the right guy for the job for our girls’ program. He’s got a lot of passion and energy.”
Connelly also acknowledged that whoever replaces Sims will “have big shoes to fill.”
He added that Sims’ former assistant, Brian Green, is doing a “fantastic job” of keeping the boys’ basketball program going during the summer months.
“I’d be remiss not to mention Coach (Jamond) Sims and sing praises about him. What a great guy,” Connelly said. “... He’s a tremendous loss, but coach Green is filling in right now. He’s already been on the staff for several seasons and was willing to keep our program running through the summer. … Brian is a guy that the players trust and know well. He works hard and is dedicated. He cares about the program deeply and was ready to step up.”
Despite Green stepping in, the seventh-year athletic director mentioned that the staff at Morgan County High School is actively looking for its next head boys’ coach.
“We certainly appreciate what coach Greene is doing, but we have opened up the door for our next (boys’) basketball coach,” Connelly said. “We’re using a thorough process. … Obviously, we’re in a timely situation with the (basketball) search. We are vetting our candidates closely to make sure we get the right guy for the job.”
Heading into the 2022-23 school year, Connelly expects the athletic programs at MCHS not to skip a beat, and to continue to reach new levels of success.
Most notably, the football team is expected to take a big step forward in year two under Clint Jenkins. The volleyball, soccer, wrestling and softball teams are also expected to make playoff runs in their respective seasons. Additionally, the cross country, tennis, baseball, golf and bass fishing teams are slated to have even more success with a lot of returning varsity athletes.
Connelly is excited about what is to come for the Bulldogs’ athletic programs over the next 12 months, adding that the future is bright for MCHS.
“Having a wide range of programs that have achieved this much success is great,” he said. “ … We’re having a lot of success in building a pipeline between the middle and high school. I think that’s key for small schools like us. … To have sustained success in an area (like Morgan County), that’s what you need. … We want to build up our youth programs, which will only help us in the future.”
Editor's Note: By the time this article was released, the news of Morgan County hiring its new boys' head basketball coach was released.