Lumpkin County Athletics Director Tommy Jones announced Tuesday that five new coaches will be taking over head coaching duties.
Dustin Allen was named the head baseball coach replacing Nicky Jenkins, who helped lead the Indians to the playoffs the past two seasons.
"First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Coach Nicky Jenkins on an outstanding 2009 season and four year coaching reign at LCHS," Jones said. "He truly did an outstanding job and deserves to be commended. His teams were always well-prepared and competed to win every game.
"While we sincerely hate that he decided to step away from his head coaching responsibilities, we firmly believe that Coach Allen will continue the strong tradition of baseball in Lumpkin County."
Radford Windham was named the new boys soccer coach taking over for the retiring Mark Franklin.
"We are sincerely appreciative of Coach Mark Franklin's service to the LCHS Men's Soccer program," Jones said. "He will always be remembered for raising the level of soccer in this county and developing a true top-tier program. We wish him well in retirement.
"Coach Windham has a strong soccer pedigree and will do a great job in continuing the strong tradition at LCHS. In addition, he will serve as a great mentor and role-model to the young men in his program."
Greg Murray will take over the reigns as the new girls basketball coach, replacing Jill Armstrong.
"Coach Armstrong worked tirelessly during her two year reign as head coach," Jones said. "She will always be remembered for coaching (Ashley Brown) the top scorer in Lumpkin County history."
"Greg has an outstanding basketball background that includes time as both a player and coach at North Georgia. As most in the area already know, this will be Greg's second stint as Head Coach of the Lady Indians. His first tenure proved to be very successful."
Ryan Trust will take over the girls tennis program from Libbie Armstrong.
"Coach Armstrong has been a fixture as the girls Tennis coach through the years and has done an outstanding job of creating broad interest in the program. She will be missed," Jones said.
"We are excited about Coach Trust taking over the program. He is a huge follower of the game and we feel confident that he will work well with boys coach Alan Hogan to make the overall program the best it can possibly be."
Ashleigh Devries will become the new competition cheerleading coach.
"We will certainly miss the leadership of Coach Melissa Combs with the Competition Cheerleading team," Jones said. "We are excited about having Ashleigh work with the team this year. She has already been working with the football squad so we are expecting the transition to be relatively seamless."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/6/220986