Bears coaching search begins Monday

mbrown@sunmulti.com

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.”

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