Waggoner leaving Pike County

Brad Waggoner is returning home.

After one season as head football coach at Pike County, Waggoner has accepted a job as head football coach at Chattooga High School near Rome, Ga.

He tendered his resignation as a teacher, coach and athletic director to Pike County officials on Wednesday, effective this upcoming Monday. Waggoner will begin his duties at Chattooga next week.

The Bulldogs went 5-5, but made the state playoffs in Waggoner’s lone season in Brundidge.

“It was a hard decision,” Waggoner said. “I love the Troy and Pike County area. Pike County High School is a special place and the kids are the hardest workers that I have ever been around, but the opportunity to go back home to Georgia, where I grew up, played high school and played college at Georgia Tech, was too hard to pass up.”

Waggoner is a native of Fayetteville, Ga., and attended Landmark Christian in Fairburn, a suburb of Atlanta. Chattooga is about an hour and half way from his home area.

“All my family still lives in Georgia,” Waggoner said.

For Waggoner, the opportunity to be a head coach in Georgia also represents a dream come true.

“Growing up, I always wanted to be a head coach in Georgia,” Waggoner said.

Officials at Pike County were disappointed, but understood Waggoner’s decision.

“Although deeply disappointed, I respect coach Waggoner’s request to be released and wish him the best,” Pike County Superintendent Dr. Mark Bazzell said.

Pike County High School principal Mike Hall said the news Wednesday didn’t catch officials off guard.

“He and I have talked about this for two-three weeks,”  Hall said. “It was a tough decision for him, moreso than it probably appears. He had grown attached to the kids here, but you can’t blame him for wanting to go home.”

Waggoner came to Pike County after a successful three-year stint at Luverne, going 25-11 and reaching the state playoffs all three years. His 2006 team at Luverne reached the Class 2A state quarterfinals before losing to Houston Academy.

Waggoner actually took a head coaching job at Douglas in north Alabama after the 2007 season, but took the Pike County job a few months later before coaching a game.

He began his coaching career in Georgia, serving in assistant roles at Fayette County and later at Sandy Creek, both in the metro Atlanta area.

He then became a head coach at Crescent City (Fla.) before going to Luverne.

Waggoner took over at Pike County following a highly-successful tenure of veteran head coach Wayne Grant, who guided the Bulldogs to five state championships in two coaching stints, including three (2003, 2005 and 2006) in his last stint from 1999-2007.
Despite a sub-par season by Bulldog standards, Waggoner said he had nothing but support from Pike County administration.

“I knew it would be tough to follow a coach who had been highly-successful, but the administration was as good as anywhere I have been,” Waggoner said. “They were supportive the whole time.”

In fact, Waggoner said one of the hardest decisions was telling Bazzell that he accepted the Chattooga job.

“Dr. Bazzell made the decision hard for me,” Waggoner said. “I wrestled on it for two weeks.”

While the record was not Pike County-like, both Bazzell and Hall felt Waggoner did far better than the record book indicates.
“As head football coach, coach Waggoner inherited the youngest and most inexperienced football team PCHS has fielded in the last 10 years,” Bazzell said. “Despite many unnecessary off the field distractions, the football team under coach Waggoner’s direction continued to improve each week and won three of their last four games and made the Class 3A playoffs.

“Despite some tough times early in the season, coach Waggoner held his head high and acted with character and integrity which both the board and I appreciate immensely.

“As athletic director, coach Waggoner brought financial stability to the athletic program which was very much in need of close supervision.

“Despite his short stay, I am sure the program is headed in the proper direction and that all future Bulldog athletic teams will benefit from his time in our system.”

Pike County posted an official job opening announcement on Wednesday and hope to have a new head coach hired by mid-February.

“We prefer to hire someone with experience as a head coach,” Hall said.

n In a related coaching note, Grant is also on the move.

The former Bulldog coach served as a volunteer assistant coach at Ariton this past year while teaching at Pike County High School.

He retired as science teacher at Pike County after Christmas and has accepted a science teacher and assistant football coaching role at Pike Liberal Arts in Troy.