VALDOSTA — The Lowndes County Board of Education will try to name a new head football coach and athletic director for Lowndes High School on Saturday morning.

Lowndes High supporters hope the board — after two failed attempts — can finally fill the post and bring closure to a messy search process.

“We need a coach,” said Emmitt Pinkston, the president of the Viking Touchdown Club. “We’re losing (assistant) coaches, and it just creates a lot of unnecessary confusion.”

“The whole thing has become embarrassing really,” said the Rev. Greg Lofton, who has served as Lowndes team chaplain the past seven years. “And it’s starting to send a statement that the people in charge might not know what they’re doing. I’m not saying they don’t know, but again, what kind of message does that send?”

Board member Willie Linahan contends that he and his colleagues are on the right track.

“It hasn’t been strange at all,” he said. “We’re just trying to make the right decision. I haven’t had anyone tell me they thought the process was taking too long. I have heard a lot of opinions, which I always welcome. They’ve covered the entire spectrum (from) ‘We prefer somebody from the inside,’ (to) ‘We prefer someone from the outside.’ It’s been a potpourri, and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus.”

Passions have been running high at Lowndes ever since former coach Milt Miller announced his retirement in mid-January. Many in the Vikings family — including Miller himself — have lobbied for one of the current assistants to be promoted, but Lowndes County superintendent Dr. Thomas Hagler made it clear from the beginning that a wide range of candidates would be considered.

A search committee consisting of Hagler, Pinkston and LHS principal Ann Rodgers presented a recommendation the following month, but the board elected to postpone action at its Feb. 19 meeting.

“I’m assuming that the committee has probably been disbanded,” said Pinkston. “I’ve heard nothing from anybody the last month and three days. I think the only person who knows anything is the superintendent.”

Hagler could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The board seemed poised to hire Fitzgerald coach Robby Pruitt at its March 5 session, only to have the Purple Hurricanes coach withdraw his name that morning. Board chairman Bill Fuqua then announced the matter would be taken up at Saturday morning’s board retreat.

That meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 8:30 a.m. at the BOE offices off of Norman Drive.

While the pressure is building for the board to make a decision, plenty of people still want to see an internal candidate named. Lofton put his name on a half-page newspaper ad that urged the board to hire a coach already on staff.

“We wanted to respect the authority that was already in place with the board and the superintendent,” said Lofton.

“But they are not being very open. They’ve never said ‘These three people are in the final cut,’ or anything like that.

“From what I understand, there hasn’t been any information given to any of the coaches already there. They have been approached about other jobs, but they’ve held on here. They’ve stayed committed even though they don’t know whether they are going to have a job the next day or not.”

At least one coach has already decided to make a change. Former defensive coordinator Harold Brantley was originally a candidate for the Lowndes job before getting the top job at Worth County this week.

“I have a lot of good friends here, and I’ve enjoyed being here,” said Brantley, who previously coached under Miller at Worth County before moving to Lowndes in 1992. “I applied for the head job, and at some point in time I felt like I was no longer under consideration. I was invited to apply (at Worth County) and they showed a lot of support.”

Fuqua acknowledges there are divisions within the LHS community, but expects Viking supporters to unite behind the next coach.

“I think we’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ll name a new coach Saturday and put all this behind us. Anybody that’s going to take the job is going to have work to do to





pull people back together. Can it be done? Absolutely.”

Linahan also said that he “firmly believes” a coach will be named Saturday. But some fear that the Lowndes program may have already been permanently damaged.

“This thing going for so long (that) it’s making us a laughingstock, the entire school system,” said Lofton.