VALDOSTA - Valdosta High School has hired a new football coach - Rick Darlington, who led his Apopka High School team in Florida to a 37-11 record including a state championship.
Darlington replaces Mike O'Brien, whose Valdosta teams were 70-20-1 in seven seasons with four region titles and a state championship before he was fired in December.
Valdosta, which has a national record 802 victories and 23 state championships, selected Darlington from among 52 applicants from as far away as Texas and Kansas.
``This is a big honor,'' said Darlington, who will be 38 next month. ``I'm well aware of the tradition here, and it's a big job.''
Darlington has been head coach at Apopka, an Orlando-area school with 3,600 students, since 1999. His 14-1 team won the Class 6-A championship in 2001.
O'Brien was hired earlier this month to replace Rodney Floyd as coach of Woodstock High School in Cherokee County north of Atlanta.
Friday
April 25th, 2025
7:56PM
