Born to coach, Jaybo Shaw brings high hopes to Dawson County

Before Jaybo Shaw ever called a play, he was learning the game with a football tucked under his arm and his dad’s voice ringing in his ears. Now, Dawson County’s new coach, Shaw says football isn’t just in his blood — it’s in his bones.

The Shaw name is synonymous with football across the state. Jaybo’s dad, Lee Shaw, owns a 190-119 record over 28 seasons as a Georgia head coach. He’s currently at Metter, where his team finished 10-2 last season.

Lee Shaw is also known for his 10 season at Flowery Branch, where he coached his sons, Jaybo and Connor Shaw, and for his seven years at Rabun County, which he built into a state power.

“We were both fortunate enough to play for him, my brother and I,” Jaybo Shaw said. “That was really, really special. You know, we always enjoyed getting coached by him. He held us to a very high standard.”

Flowery Branch was a 3-year-old school without a winning season until 2005, when the Connor brothers took over the quarterback position for the next five years. The Falcons then went 52-13 with 10 playoff victories. Jaybo made all-state the first three years, Connor the final two.

Jaybo played at Georgia Tech before transferring to Georgia Southern. Connor spent four years at South Carolina and became the school’s winningest quarterback with a 27-5 record. He played three NFL seasons.

“I knew probably since I picked up a ball or could walk that I was going to be a football coach,” Jaybo said.

Unlike Connor, who spent only a handful of years coaching, Jaybo has made football coaching his life. He began as a ball and water boy for his dad’s teams, idolizing the players he coached. After college, he became a graduate assistant at Georgia Southern and followed his head coach, Jeff Monken, to the U.S. Military Academy (Army). Next, he went to Western Carolina as a wide receivers coach.

Then he returned to join his father’s staff at Rabun County.

“I don’t know if it’s because of my past experiences seeing my dad, (but) I felt, I belonged on a high school sideline,” Shaw said. “I just kind of kept getting pulled in that direction.”

With Jaybo as offensive coordinator, Rabun County was 47-6, averaged 43.8 points per game and reached the quarterfinals or better in four seasons. Lee Shaw retired from Rabun County after the 2018 season, and Jaybo was promoted.

“All right, man, don’t mess this thing up,” Jaybo said he told himself. “We’ve won four region championships in a row.”

Under Jaybo, Rabun County extended the region-title streak three more seasons. Jaybo credits his staff, formerly his father’s staff, with helping him adjust early on. He felt that with everything in place, he had to “keep them hands on the wheel and let’s keep it in the road,” he said while laughing. Three years of Gunner Stockton, now Georgia’s quarterback, didn’t hurt, either.

Shaw would go 35-5 at Rabun County before taking the Wayne County job in 2022. Wayne County had just come off a 0-9 season. In Shaw’s first year, Wayne was 10-3 and finished in the third round of the playoffs. Wayne County became the second team in history, first since Monroe Area in 2012, to win 10 games after going winless the previous year. In his two years there, Shaw’s teams were 17-7.

“Those two years at Wayne made me a better coach,” Shaw said. “Regardless of whether we were going to be successful or if we weren’t - we were fortunate enough that we were - I’ll look back on it throughout my entire career and just think that that was a huge, pivotal spot in my career.”

After the 2023 season, Shaw wanted to be closer to his family. His brother was living outside of Greenville, South Carolina. Shaw said they hadn’t lived close to each other since high school.

Shaw decided to take over the Greenville High Red Raiders. Greenville was only about an hour and a half from Rabun County, where most of his family lived. The Red Raiders were coming off three consecutive trips to the state semifinals and three straight 10-win seasons.

He couldn’t create the same type of success he’s had at other stops there in Greenville. They were 2-9 last season and lost in the first round of the playoffs. It was the first losing season he had experienced in his life.

“I’ve got two coaches on my staff that have been with me at every spot,” Shaw said, referring to JayJay White (offensive line, strength and conditioning) and Andy Mahaffey (assistant head coach, running backs), both former high school teammates. “(I told them) ‘This is going to be beneficial for us. At some point, this experience is going to come back and help us be a better coach.’”

That disappointing season prompted Shaw to move back to Georgia. He wanted to find a job in a specific area for a specific reason. Shaw’s wife, Bryleigh, is a dental hygienist and wanted to return to the job she had in Gainesville when Shaw coached at Rabun County.

“And she absolutely loves her job,” Shaw said. “I literally drew a radius around my wife’s office ... and was like, anything within this radius opens up, I’m going to try and get an interview there.”

Now at Dawson County, Shaw finds himself in a familiar situation. Sid Maxwell, the winningest coach in Dawson County history, retired. He won the school’s only two region championships (2015 and 2022) in history. After seven straight playoff appearances, Dawson County slipped the past two seasons, finishing 2-8 and 4-6.

Shaw is charged with elevating the program to a level it hasn’t been before, not unlike what he and his father helped accomplish at Rabun County, or even at Flowery Branch as coach and son. And as he did at Rabun, Shaw is following a successful coach.

He says his players have bought into what he has asked of them, and he can tell they want to be coached hard. He told them to embrace the change because it will spark their growth.

Shaw has three young children of his own now. They find themselves all around the fieldhouse during the day while he’s taking care of coaching responsibilities. He finds himself pausing from time to time, just watching them and remembering how it all started.

“I was literally telling my brother last night on the phone,” Shaw said. “I looked out (the window) over there, and it was reminiscent of ‘That used to be me and my brother running around and riding our bikes around the track.’”

Echoes of the past, siblings racing bikes, chasing dreams and footballs.

It’s where it all started. And for Shaw, it feels like exactly where he’s meant to be.