Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and former NFL MVP and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton will headline this year’s inductees into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame. Also part of the 2025 class will be NBA legend Walt Frazier of Atlanta’s old Howard High, former Falcons and Georgia Tech star Keith Brooking of East Coweta and 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame honoree Sterling Sharpe of Glennville.

Fitzgerald, a South Georgia football program that has made five consecutive state semifinal appearances, hired Stephens County’s Wes Tankersley as head coach last week. Tankersley, who led Stephens County to two region titles in his seven seasons, was approved by the Ben Hill Schools board. “We’re excited to be part of that community and continue the success they’ve had,” Tankersley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Appling County has hired Tucker Pruitt – whose 60 victories this decade are tied for most among South Georgia football coaches – to begin a new chapter for a successful program hit with 10 forfeits to its 2024 Class 2A semifinals season. Pruitt led Fitzgerald to its fifth consecutive semifinals appearance last season.

NBA legend Walt Frazier, Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP Cam Newton were among the 30 players added to the ballot for the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame last week. The 30 additions refreshed the ballot to 100 players after 30 were inducted last year.

The Georgia High School Association’s reclassification committee last week heard new proposals, got more answers about existing ones and continued to warm to the idea of seeding playoff teams in every class with power rankings. Starting this academic year, power ratings — a math model that ranks teams based on game scores — are helping select and seed playoff teams in classes 3A, 2A and A Division I.

The GHSA-endorsed competitive balance reclassification model needs to make up lost ground Monday when the GHSA’s reclass committee resumes its monthly meetings in Thomaston. The meeting agenda, which the GHSA posted Wednesday, includes discussion of competitive balance and a separate reclass model introduced last month.

Rance Gillespie, a 21-year head coach in Georgia, is Rabun County’s new football coach. The northeast Georgia mountain school made the announcement last week. Gillespie, a Rabun County alumnus, is a 21-year Georgia head coach with stops at five schools, most notably Peach County, where he won two state titles.

The Georgia High School Association legalized name, image, likeness (NIL) deals for high school athletes in October 2024, but those contracts remain scarce and rarely lead to big money, the GHSA’s Robin Hines said last week. Hines was the GHSA’s executive director when NIL deals were approved. He retired last summer but stayed on as the GHSA’s liaison to the Georgia General Assembly.

Citing PTSD, anxiety, grief and depression, Mike Hancock has resigned as football coach at Apalachee, the Barrow County school that was the site of a Sept. 4 shooting that left two students and two faculty members dead. One of those killed in the shooting, Richard Aspinwall, was Hancock’s defensive coordinator.

Michael Davis is out as Rabun County’s football coach, saying he retired, though it sounds as if he’d prefer to stay. “I’m retiring, and I’m going to leave it at that,” Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m not done coaching by any means. I’m hoping to get on somewhere at 49% (part-time) and do something. I still love kids and want to be around them.” Davis’ Rabun County teams were 12-1, 9-4 and 6-5.

Pace Academy announced former Atlanta Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon as its head football coach Friday. Weatherspoon was a 2010 first-round NFL Draft pick who played six seasons with the Falcons and one with the Cardinals. He started 44 of his 67 NFL games.

Jonathan Gess, who led Hebron Christian to its first football state title last season, announced Wednesday that he is taking the head coaching job at Southside Christian near Greenville, S.C., in his home state. Gess’s Hebron Christian team won the Class 3A-A private division last season, Gess’ third with the Gwinnett County school.

Dutchtown is the latest winning football team looking for a head coach. Niketa Battle was fired Friday despite a 25-13 record in three seasons and a Class 5A semifinal finish in 2022. “I had some kids that transferred, and administration said I had limited parent contact and they wanted to go in a different direction,” Battle told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Greg Vandagriff, who resigned last week as Prince Avenue Christian’s football coach, was announced Wednesday morning as head coach at Lakeway Christian Academy in Lake Pine, Tennessee. “It’s a program that’s just started up and hasn’t had a ton of success, and they want to make a financial commitment to being successful, and it starts with hiring a head coach,” Vandagriff told the AJC.

Prince Avenue Christian promoted offensive coordinator Jon Richt to head football coach Monday to replace Greg Vandagriff, who won three state championships and 107 games in nine seasons. Vandagriff resigned last week, Prince Avenue Athletic Director Richard Ricketts said. Richt is a son of former Georgia coach Mark Richt.

Cedartown announced Calhoun offensive coordinator Tommy Atha as its football coach last week. Atha will replace Jamie Abrams, who was forced out last month despite a 50-12 record over five seasons. Atha is best known for his 22 seasons as head coach and 30 years overall service at Darlington.

Mike Chastain, who became Jones County’s all-time winningest football coach last season, and Chad Alligood, the school’s athletic director, confirmed Monday that they resigned Friday. Their decisions came less than two weeks after a board of education hearing at which some parents and football team booster expressed displeasure with Chastain.

The GHSA will consider a reclassification proposal that could cut the number of classifications to four while still crowning eight state champions in most sports. That doesn’t mean the GHSA is shifting away from the competitive-balance plan discussed in the Jan. 25 reclassification meeting in Thomaston. New proposals just mean the GHSA is being patient when a decision isn’t required until fall.

Adam Clack, who launched the Milton football dynasty and won the school’s first state title in a 2018 upset, is set to be Parkview’s new head coach. Clack will replace Joe Sturdivant, a Parkview alumnus who stepped down earlier this month after two seasons to take a job college job in South Dakota.

Andrico Hines, the offensive coordinator for Hughes’ 2022 Class 6A championship team, is the Panthers’ new head coach. Hines will replace Daniel Williams, who became head coach at Northside of Warner Robins earlier this month.