VALDOSTA — The reins of the Valdosta Wildcats are now in the hands of Rick Tomberlin.

Tomberlin, the head coach at Washington County, was hired by Valdosta on Monday night. The Valdosta Board of Education approved the hire unanimously.

Valdosta High, which has won more games than anyone other high school football program, is getting the man that has won more games than any other coach in the past 14 years. During that time, he has won 157 games (an average of 11.2 per season), lost just 31 (2.2 per season), and won three state championships.

“It’s another chapter in this storyline, and I think it’s one we’re excited to turn to,” Valdosta High principal Brett Stanton said.

Tomberlin has been coaching football in Georgia for 25 years, the last 22 as a head coach. He was the head coach at Jonesboro High from 1984-88, then at Lowndes High from 1989-91. Since 1992, Tomberlin has been the head coach at Washington County.

At Washington, Tomberlin took an average program that had experienced very little success in its history, and turned it into a state power. The Golden Hawks won state championships in 1994, 1997 and 1998.

All three of those state championships were won on the road. Whatever advantage the home team is supposed to have didn’t keep three Washington County teams from winning state on someone else’s field. All five state title games the Golden Hawks have played in were played on their opponent’s field.

“He’s a man who has competed for a state championship five times, and won it three times. I think that speaks volumes,” Stanton said. “But one thing I don’t think people understand is that all of those state championship games were played on the road. He never had a chance to play one at home. I think for him to be able to win those state championships in hostile territory says a lot about him.”

But few teams have been harder to beat at home than Tomberlin’s Washington County teams. Playing in Sandersville, in a stadium Tomberlin nicknamed “The House of Pain,” the Golden Hawks have gone 87-8 at home since 1992.

“I think teams knew that when they went into the House of Pain in Sandersville, they knew they’d better tighten the screws up on their headgear, because it was going to be physical,” Stanton said. “That’s what we need to get back to here. There’s a lot of traditions here, like the Ghost of Cleveland Field, and Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, and banging the headgear on the tin. We need to get back to that air of mystique, that when you play the Wildcats, you’d better strap it up, especially when you play at home.”

Tomberlin has also gained a reputation for sending players on to college football programs. From 1992-2003, the Golden Hawks had 65 players sign college scholarships, many of them Division I offers.

His program also has a reputation as one of the strongest in the state, thanks to his “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” training program. That program has produced two state All-Classification weightlifting champions, and has been one of the pillars on which he has built the successful Washington County football program.

Offensively, Tomberlin has modeled his Golden Hawks teams after the old University of Nebraska teams that Tom Osborne coached to three national championships. The Golden Hawks move the ball through the option and a power running game. Defensively, Tomberlin has coached a physical, attacking style of defense.