Baconton Charter tabs Randy Grace as new football coach

BACONTON — A Southwest Georgia football program hired a new football coach on Wednesday, and another school could name a new football coach soon.

Baconton Charter announced that it has found a new football coach and is excited to move in a new direction. After interviewing nearly 25 candidates, Randy Grace was named the new head coach.

Meanwhile, footballscoop.com reported that Mitchell County hired Deshon Brock to be its new athletic director and head football coach. Mitchell County officials would not confirm the report. Brock is the former head basketball coach of Long County High in Ludowici, Ga.

Grace is replacing longtime coach Johnny Hayes, who retired. He most recently served as defensive coordinator at Harris County High this past season after serving as head coach at Wheeler County High in 2015.

Previously, he was the head football coach at St. Anne-Pacelli High in Columbus and was able to turn the program around in the four years he spent leading the program.

In 2010, the season before Grace took over, St. Anne-Pacelli finished 0-10. In 2011, the Vikings improved to 4-6. But in 2013, they finished 7-4 and made the state playoffs, followed by another postseason appearance a year late.

His success is what Baconton school administrator Lynn Pinson said won the hiring committee over.

“He has coached in a small school atmosphere and turned around a program at Pacelli,” she said. “He just seemed to have an enthusiasm for a small-school environment that matched up with the way we think and the way we like to do things.”

Pinson noted there was a great deal of interest and after seeing players, staff and parents take to Grace in a meeting Tuesday, she believes the program is heading in the right direction.

“I think right now the biggest focus is on the re-energizing of the program,” she said. “I think sometimes when you bring someone new in, they bring new ideas and a just a new way of thinking, and I think that appealed to the boys yesterday.

“They were just excited that we had put that as a top priority as a school to find someone. I think they were very appreciative. We had several of the football players come … and after the meeting they were just grateful that we cared enough about the position to go through an aggressive interview process and find somebody that we thought fit. And he really clicked with the boys yesterday, clicked with the coaching staff, met them, and we’re just excited about it.”

Grace is inheriting a Baconton team that finished 2-8 this past season and hasn’t won more than three games in the last six-plus years. Grace said he believes the team has more potential than the record shows.

“What I do see is a group that reminds me so much of the same situation I was in in Pacelli in 2011 when I took over that program, maybe with a little more athletic ability,” he said. “It is something that is going to be a challenge, but I think we can really lay a good foundation the first year and really start building the program to be competitive.”

If Brock is confirmed at Mitchell County, he would replace former coach Larry Cornelius, who resigned to take the head football job at Lakewood High School in Sumter, S.C.