DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — Will Anglin's lifelong professional dream has come true.
The Dawson County alum was approved by the Board of Education as the new Lady Tiger head basketball coach on Tuesday night.
Athletic director Bradley Fowler made the announcement Wednesday morning.
"We're super excited to have Will because he loves Dawson County," Fowler said. "He has a great plan and will bring a great culture -- a community team culture that he believes in, and we believe in as well. We know that he's committed to our program and Dawson County."
This will be his first head coaching basketball job. Anglin currently serves as the golf coach at the school. He replaces Eric Herrick who resigned last month to take the North Hall girls job.
On Wednesday, Anglin said the process has worked out better than he could have imagined.
"I can't even really put it into words," he said. "It's something I've dreamed about since I've played at Dawson County. I've always said I wanted to come back and be a head coach here, so now to finally do that, it's remarkable."
Anglin played at Dawson County under Thad Burgess (2009-2013), then was a community coach under Burgess, and was hired after college to be a teacher and coach.
During that time, he put himself in a position to absorb as much knowledge about the game under some top-tier coaches -- Burgess, Chad Pittman, Herrick and Todd Cottrell.
Now, he'll take what he has learned, mix it all together and formulate his own style of coaching and philosophy with a little bit of tutelage from each mentor.
"I am blessed to have had so many opportunities," he said. "I played for Thad and have coached under some really good men, and every one of them was a little bit different. For me, I'm going to be able to take a variety of what I've learned and put it together to make it personal to me -- something I can pride myself on."
The Lady Tigers finished 17-11 in 2022 and made the first round of the Class 3A tournament. They return the bulk of their roster including some younger talent coming in from the junior high program.
"We return a lot of experience and will add the Mountain League champs (junior high girls) to the roster, so super excited about that," he said. "I think there's a lot of young talent with good guard play and some good bigs in there as well. I think just finding the right lineup at the right time is going to be key and keeping everyone involved is going to be huge."
But Anglin will have his hands full in a new-look Region 7-3A that most likely will be among the best in Class 3A with defending Class 3A state champs Lumpkin County returning, Class 4A semifinalists Pickens, perennial playoff contender White County and traditional private school juggernaut Wesleyan moving in.
"The new region is going to be tough," he said. "I told the girls that I believe in what we have and am excited about what we have. They had success last year, so we're just looking to continue and build on that success. We want to get back to that consistency that Dawson women's basketball had been for some time."
