2015 Football Preview: Five area teams follow trend, enter season with new coaches

There are 30 coaches in our coverage area -- just seven of them have been at the same school for longer than five seasons.

Over the last two seasons 13 coaches have either added their names to the ranks of the northeast Georgia coaching fraternity or changed their locales, including five this season and eight more set to embark on their sophomore campaigns.

In other words, longevity -- that most enviable of coaching descriptives -- is rare amongst the area's program leaders.

The new head men -- Kelly Davis at Riverside Military, Benji Harrison at Habersham Central, Sid Maxwell at Dawson County, Steven Sims at Apalachee and Brandon Worley at Jackson County -- each face unique challenges.

Davis, previously an assistant with the Eagles, faces perhaps the most distinctive challenge, taking over a military boarding school program in which he doesn't even get a full roster just days before the season.

Harrison takes over a Raiders team looking to get on track in the largest classification in the state.

Maxwell inherited a program that had been building for some time -- literally and metaphorically, as the Tigers installed a new turf field and weight facility this offseason.

Sims is looking to revive a Wildcats squad that has changed from consistent winner to a team that has just one victory in the past two campaigns.

And Worley took charge of a squad coming off some program-altering successes of just a few seasons ago -- one that is looking to get baclk to that position despite playing in most likely the toughest region in all of Class AAA.

Every one of these men knows it won't be easy, but every single one of them also believes they have the method and ability to lead their teams where they want to go. And there are enough examples of quick success -- even in northeast Georgia -- as to make keep fans on the edges of their seats. Look no further than last season.

In 2014, four of the eight coaches that took new posts advanced their teams in the state playoffs -- Frank Barden at Stephens County, Ty Maxwell at Lumpkin County, Korey Mobbs at Lanier and Heath Webb and Winder-Barrow. Mobbs even won a region title, while Barden took his squad into the second round of the postseason. In other words, a brand new coaching staff is in no way a guarantee of growing pains. Of course nether is it a guarantee of success, as the other four programs that hired new coaches last season finished with a combined record of 9-31.

Will that group of 13 become the next group of seven? Only time will tell, in fact the only thing that is guaranteed this season is intrigue, and these changes just add to what should be a thrilling 2015 campaign.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/8/329148/2015-football-preview-new-coaches