With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, Houston County
High principal Michelle Masters will start making a list on Monday. That’s a
list of prospects for the now-vacant positions of the school’s athletic
director and head football coach.
Greg Robinson, the athletic director and Bears football
coach since the 2008-09 school year, resigned at the conclusion of the 2012
season for what Masters called “personal” and “family” reasons.
Officially, the jobs become open on Monday, and Masters said
she will be accepting applicants from both inside and outside Houston County.
The closing date is Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, and then the interviewing process
begins. Masters said she expects this to be a quick process with the goal of
presenting a name to the board of education on Jan. 8.
“I’ll seek input from all the head coaches here, and I’ll
meet with the booster club for their input,” said Masters. “There’s already
quite a bit of interest.”
Masters said she picked Monday as the first day to take
applications because it will be right after the conclusion of the state
football playoffs. She said she didn’t want anyone interested and part of a
team competing for a state championship to have to mix preparing for the big
game with putting together a resume.
The position is not only for head football coach, but
athletic director for the entire Bears’ program. Masters said she has no
“preconceived notions” of what she is looking for in this hiring process, only
that it should be somebody with expertise in working with high school students,
who will get the students involved and build their character.
Houston County High has athletic programs that had, or
currently have, long streaks of winning region championships. The most notable
would be in softball and boys soccer. Bears baseball returned to the state
playoffs after a long absence last spring, and cross country has also enjoyed
success at the region level.
Just this fall, competition cheerleading brought home a state
title to the Houston County campus. Masters said it’s an obvious goal to bring
the football program up to that same competitive level.
The Bears football team has not been to the GHSA playoffs
since the 2006 season, which was the last for the school’s first head coach,
Doug Johnson. He started the program in 1991.
In five years, Robinson, the former head coach at Dodge
County High, had only one winning season with Houston County. The Bears went
6-4 in 2010 after starting 4-0 and defeating Warner Robins High 7-3. It was
Houston’s first win in a region game after a three-year drought, but also the
only time the Bears beat one of the two city rivals under Robinson.
“He’s a great man,” said Masters. “He has as much character
as anyone I’ve ever known.”
HHJ News
