Valdosta High, nation’s winningest football program, will not renew contract of head coach
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Valdosta High School, which has the nation’s winningest football program, will not be welcoming back its head coach for next season.
Valdosta dropped a 57-15 decision to crosstown rival Lowndes last weekend. Wildcats coach Rick Tomberlin was told late Tuesday his contract would not be renewed for the 2010 season by Valdosta City Schools Superintendent Bill Cason, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
“I’m in shock,” Tomberlin told the Valdosta newspaper. “I did everything I could do here. I’ve never worked harder in my life. I haven’t missed many days of school. I’ve made some wonderful friends here. A lot of people have been very kind to me. I think I’m leaving (the program) a lot better than it was when I got here.”
Tomberlin was given the option of resigning immediately or finishing out the season. He has decided to stay on with the Wildcats, who are 4-3 and still have a chance of earning a berth in the Class AAAAA playoffs. Tomberlin’s dismissal still must go through several other steps, including a vote by the board of education. However, the rest of the process is considered to be a mere formality.
“I want to finish the season … I don’t want to quit on my kids. I owe it to them, and love them, and I want to see them through whatever happens, whether it’s the end of the regular season, or the end of the playoffs, whether it’s three games, five games, eight games, whatever the case may be,” Tomberlin told the Valdosta paper.
“I’m really going to work hard these next three games. Nothing’s going to change. I’m going to help these kids all I can with scholarships and colleges.”
Tomberlin is 19-20 at Valdosta, including a 1-9 mark in his first season at the school in 2006. Tomberlin was hired away from Washington County, where he coached for 14 years and won three state championships.
Since 1913, Valdosta has won six mythical national championships and 23 state championships. The Wildcats have an overall record of 838 wins, 191 losses and 34 ties.
So what do YOU think? Did Valdosta pull the trigger too soon on Tomberlin? Or do you think he had already been given a fair chance to prove his value?
And will Valdosta — which won its last state championship in 1998 — ever be able to return to its glory days?
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245 comments Add your comment
yo
October 14th, 2009
8:42 pm
Wildcat Fan regarding a successful coach the TD Club faithful will be like the energizer bunny and they will be looking and looking and looking and…………
Tomberlin was history the day he showed up here. Valdosta faithful were firing him from day 1. You can’t keep firing “what were successful coaches” before they showed up at Valdosta and ever expect any thing to change.
You fired your last state championship coach!!! fofroflalalaughingoutloud
I live here and I hear all of the pooh pooh and constant discontent coming from the Wildcat faithful.
Kids are not ever going to perform under any coach until the faithful get their act together.
Northside Observer
October 14th, 2009
8:56 pm
ENR–Please keep your birthname to yourself. I warned JAYBO of this awhile back. If you expose yourself you will come under unmerciful personal attacks. I am one of the few or not only person that knows who you are. That’s because of B, V, C in Sonoraville, and B working on his Masters with his new wife. Take care!
Tucker
October 14th, 2009
9:03 pm
This action tarnishes further the legacy of Valdosta football. Those still alive who helped build that legacy should speak up before all respect is lost. Otherwise they contribute to the undoing themselves.
yo
October 14th, 2009
9:03 pm
Hey I know B so that’s who ENR is!! LOL
Upset mom
October 14th, 2009
9:13 pm
Yo – if you actually live in VD towm then you will know the VD Times. The facts are in there about what happened. How do I know? I worked for them and got to cover this story. No Tomberlin cool aid just facts. No wonder your posts are lost.
Upset mom
October 14th, 2009
9:25 pm
LLMAN was not sure if I was going to waste my time but decided to waste a little herre to set you straight. I had 2 sons play for VHS. My husband retired as a Colonel and was recruited by the Touchdown club to recruit Air Force players thru AF channels for those overseas returning stateside. Do you have any idea about military kids that play? They do not wear special jerseys. They just play and provided needed talent for VHS while Nick was coach. When he retired Lowndes managed to get Moody players instead of VHS and it has never been the same. Please understand that it takes more than 3 names to be on a team. By my husbands count every year between 25% – 35% of the starters were military kids. That was his job for the TD club and he loved doing it. Based on what you say you would think there were no military kids. That is a misconception on your part. How good would the Wildcats have been without those players?
Quinn of the Ridge
October 14th, 2009
10:22 pm
The rumor I’ve been hearing… Rush Probst. Just a rumor, but if that comes true, WATCH OUT Lowndes.
Legend of Len Barker
October 14th, 2009
10:31 pm
Valdosta got ahead initially because Bazemore and Hyder were ahead of their time.
Bazemore didn’t run the football team, he ran the whole school, if not the whole county or even below the fall line. Valdosta boys’ basketball used to be considered a joke. It was winter conditioning for the football players. When future VSC women’s basketball coaching legend Lyndal Worth called him out on it, he never spoke to her again.
Since then, almost everyone else that has athletes of value has caught up. Weight training is accepted. Bazemore and his iron fist retired.
Starting in the 1980s, the demographics of Lowndes County changed. People with money don’t live in town. It’s enough that a third high school is being built, albeit with no official school zones.
Also contributing to Valdosta’s success in the 1950s were the wonky regions. The Legend’s alma mater was included until VHS jumped to AAA. The last year we played, we forfeited on the account of … uh … the flu. We were really sick, you know. We might could actually beat them now, but some would say it’s unfair for high school age boys to play 70 year old men.
R
October 14th, 2009
10:40 pm
Rick Tomberlin would never refuse to shake any man’s hand. He’s a gentlemen.
Gt4ever
October 14th, 2009
10:43 pm
EagleNationRisng, you really got me…. Wow, I bow to your superiority…… I still think your just a blow hard! But hey, just a typical UGA fan!
Yellow Jackets Rule
October 14th, 2009
10:44 pm
By the way, as a former Valdosta Times sportswriter, regarding Valdosta football – high school ball truly is a numbers game. That’s the first fact of life for a program. Talent, size, and all other physical attributes boys have fall along a “bell curve” distribution – for example, for every 100 boys, 2 or 3 might have both size and athletic talent. So if your school has 1000 students, maybe you have 20 or 30 really good potential players. 2000 students means double the athletes (40 to 60), and 3000 students would mean triple that (60 to 80). I’m making up the numbers just to get the idea across.
Next fact of life is, the coach and his program still have to persuade as many of the best boys as possible to take up the hard road of playing football. Valdosta always had advantages in the Bazemore and Hyder eras because the city was small and no boy lived more than 2 miles from Cleveland Field (the stadium.) Lowndes, by contrast, was in the middle of a county roughly 20 miles by 20 miles, so boys had, on average, 10 times as far to travel to play ball. Naturally, a higher percentage of VHS boys would play ball than LHS boys because of transportation.
Add to this Valdosta’s amazing system of youth football in past years; as a past Valdosta Daily Times sports editor explained to me, the Bazemore/Hyder system involved a core of plays that were taught at the only junior high school in the system (at the time), and even by many of the pee wee coaches feeding boys to VJHS, so that by the time a boy reached 9th grade at VHS, he probably already knew much of the playbook! It was a textbook “feeder system”.
However, since the 1970’s, paving of county roads has made transportation less of a factor. Historically, a lot of city high schools were traditional powerhouses, like Valdosta, because they had both demographics, and also geography, on their side. Today, people move to newer developments in the counties and the balance of power has shifted.
Note that size is no guarantee of football success if the program and feeder system is not there. I remember in the late 1970’s Southwest of Macon had the highest Average Daily Attendence in the GHSA, but no great success at football because most of the potential players were doing other things with their time. In contrast, the monstrous Gwinnett schools of today, with their high ADA’s in the 3,000-student range, are getting a lot of the boys at the top of the “bell curve” into the football programs, and many of them have become relative power houses as a result.
VHS really does have a numbers disadvantage, and they cannot incorporate vast chucks of the County to make up their deficit – it would start a firestorm. But there is talk periodically about the radical notion of consolidating the two school systems. The newspaper has reported that “all” it would take is for the City system to essentially dissolve itself, then the County by default would become responsible for both systems. A balancing of student bodies might well follow, to VHS’ advantage. Another fact not mentioned so far is that the Lowndes school system is being required to construct a second high school, and a site has already been chosen in the Pine Grove area. This school will unquestionably reduce the ADA of LHS and potentially diminish the talent pool available to play for the Vikings – however, the current national financial woes have reportedly put this plan back by several years.
Otherwise, I believe the Valdosta booster club needs to update its 1950’s expectations and accept that its historical advantages have evaporated. It can still be an outstanding football school the way Thomasville High is still an outstanding football power, albeit with more realistic expectations.
AVikingFan
October 14th, 2009
10:48 pm
To UPSET MOM – Lowndes has ONE military kid on the varsity team. ONE. Lowndes Coaches or TD Club have NEVER communicated with ANYONE connected with Moody Air force Base to have student/athletes transferred here so they can play for Lowndes. Quit making stuff up! It might be a good idea, but it simply has not happened at Lowndes.
yo
October 14th, 2009
11:32 pm
upset mom my posts to ENR (he must be eating them) are lost but I haven’t lost my football coach. My gut feeling is McPherson will still be here while you are already losing your next one.
Old Timer
October 14th, 2009
11:59 pm
Valdosta is overloaded with a bunch of dumb old die hard overweight boshog fans that do not realize that football wins does not make a player a good citizen or a town any better than the next one. Discipline and education is what counts. A football score is just a number. Valdosta, where is that? Is it in Georgia?
Bodog
October 15th, 2009
1:25 am
Mike, Valdosta will never return to their glory days, and here is why since noone seemed to get this the 1st time i blogged. Valdosta is LAND-LOCKED They cannot get the numbers, and quality players like they did in the past because of the county school……ENUFF SAID….
bamabone
October 15th, 2009
5:15 am
i’m an vhs grad (’87) and my brother is an lhs grad (’92). he loves watching the demise of valdosta football and i have to say i agree with most of the posters: the demographic change in valdosta city combined with the major shift in the talent pool to the county spells the end of the proud vhs tradition. my mom graduated from sidney lanier in montgomery, al – a once proud football school which counts bart starr among its alumni – and now that place is a cesspool due to demographic changes. valdosta fans can either accept what has happened (firing Tomberlin is more than justified IMO) and start cheering for the “other” titletown team or just keep on living in the past & dream that vhs can compete in AAAAA with lhs, northside wr, and other big dogs.
LMAN
October 15th, 2009
5:22 am
YOU PEOPLE ARE BLAMING THIS ONE ON THE FANS. I DON’T THINK THE FANS REALLY HAD MUCH TO DO WITH THIS ONE. HELL I WAS SHOCKED AND DISAPPOINTED WHEN I READ IT IN THE PAPERS. AND UPSET MOM, I COULD NAME MANY MORE.
LMAN
October 15th, 2009
5:27 am
STOP LYING AVIKINGFAN. HELL SOME OF YOUR PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME AM I SENDING MY SON TO LOWNDES. MY ANSWER WAS HELL NO, THAT LEFT HANDER IS GOING TO VALDOSTA.
1AAAAA Fan
October 15th, 2009
6:41 am
Rumers are Valdosta sent a commitee to Brooks County asking their new/old coach to come and right their ship.Maurice Freeman, probably the man for the job!
DUMB REACTION
October 15th, 2009
7:35 am
WHAT A BAD DECISION TO FIRE HIM!!
HAS HE DONE SOMETHING WRONG?
JEEZ THIS IS HIGHSCHOOL WERE TALKING ABOUT.
DUMB DUMD DUMD
plow boy roy
October 15th, 2009
8:50 am
valdosta should have given coach a chance…instead pulled trigger. alright coffee county here is your chance for an outstanding coach.
randy prosen
October 15th, 2009
8:57 am
I belive that valdosta should drop to 4 A. They don’t have the numbers anymore at their school. I heard that there is a new highschool being built in Lowndes. Does anyone know if that is true?
Big Freak
October 15th, 2009
9:02 am
I am glad to see all of the critics come out as it is like waking up a sleeping giant. I think the best talent was at Northside which Valdosta should have won but who I am I to judge.Ask coach Nix how bad Valdosta is and maybe but just maybe Valdosta still has a little talent left. Hopefully some of the team members are reading these insults. Sorry Coach T what a huge mistake these guys have made. I think we need to get rid of the guys making this stupid decision to terminate you from the program. The other school in Lowndes looked really bad against Northside and no one has commented on this. Why? Every team has bad days.
Shane
October 15th, 2009
9:34 am
Hate that for Mr. Tomberlin but if its got to be maybe they will hire Mark Richt, then they could win 5 to 6 games a year, get blown out in the 1st round playoffs, and sit around the locker room singing cum ba ya!
David Grantham
October 15th, 2009
10:09 am
ENR
I am still waiting on that email. dgrantham14@att.net
I would like to see the 5 pages of your athletic history. I want to understand your point of views.
ENR's Alter Ego
October 15th, 2009
10:21 am
Grovetown 87, Northside 0
Sav
October 15th, 2009
11:55 am
I agree with the person that said Jack Rudolph should be the chair of the search committee. I’ve known him for going on 25 years and is one of the best football minds I have ever known.
dagrapevine
October 15th, 2009
5:00 pm
i’ve been around wildcat football a long time.from 67-73 i only remember
3 guys who played that came through mafb.none of them where starters.we started learning bazemore’s version of the pro-set at the boys club.by the time we got to vjrhs we could run tackle trap plays as well as block and tackle.bazemore beleive in a system more so than talent.as he often said”i’ll take your’n and you can have mine and i’ll still beat you by 14 and it aint bragging if you can do it”.
no one on the vtdc who have been there a long time ever remembers anyone in charge of recruiting the air force for players.think about it folks,you telling me little ol valdosta had that much pull with the pentagon and all these years mafb is still that small.i tell ya long beach poly would of been fighting mad valdosta taking all that nfl talent they produce all these years.maybe valdosta just was more(still is)dedicated to having a top flight football program and won all those years with great coaching and kids willing to sell out for their coaches system.bazemore would have been just as succesful on any level cause the man ate,drank and slept football.he watched game film all year and knew not only what he had coming back,but his arch rivals.
he taught hyder this after his first season and the results cant be denied.
valdosta dont owe anyone an explanation and it quite frankly dont concern anyone but us.
just be looking over your shoulder cause rich mcwhorter is coming and he’s bringing the wildcat nation with him.
btw:lowndes didnt even start football till about 55/56 and their first 4
coaches where from valdosta.they also played their games at cleveland feild on saturdays and used valdosta equipment.bazemore was instrumental in helping them get their program started.
yo
October 15th, 2009
10:40 pm
Try Again
ENR you would think Buck Godfrey would learn his lesson and do a Tomberlin/Nix and go down a classification to finally win his championship. Maybe you should suggest that to old Buck since you seem to know everybody. It seems to be the only thing that works for Tomberlin/Nix.
Remember the Parkview/Northside choke at the Mac? At least when Lowndes chokes in an important game they don’t do it “in their own house” and the don’t do it in the 15th game of the year.
In fact a “so called by ENR” Mcpherson coached “choke on the road team” went up to Parkview a few years later and took care of the business Northside couldn’t do “in their own house!!!”.
Lowndes record in State Championship games is 5-0.
And all of McPhersons State Championships were in the HIGHEST CLASSIFICATION. No Tomberlin/Nix excuses needs be made for McPherson.
You continue to measure your accomplishments by your record over Lowndes
(we consider that an honor) and we will measure our accomplishments by
non Tomberlin/Nix type AAAAA State Championships.
yo
October 15th, 2009
10:43 pm
Remember the Parkview/Northside choke at the Mac? At least when Lowndes chokes in an important game they don’t do it “in their own house” and they don’t do it in the 15th game of the year.
In fact a “so called by ENR” McPherson coached “choke on the road team” went up to Parkview a few years later and took care of the business Northside couldn’t do “in their own house!!!”.
Lowndes record in State Championship games is 5-0.
And all of McPhersons State Championships were in the HIGHEST CLASSIFICATION. No Tomberlin/Nix excuses needs be made for McPherson.
ENR you would think Buck Godfrey would learn his lesson and do a Tomberlin/Nix and go down a classification to finally win his championship. Maybe you should suggest that to old Buck since you seem to know everybody. It seems to be the only thing that works for Tomberlin/Nix.
You continue to measure your accomplishments by your record over Lowndes
(we consider that an honor) and we will measure our accomplishments by
non Tomberlin/Nix type AAAAA State Championships.
yo
October 15th, 2009
10:44 pm
Remember the Parkview/Northside choke at the Mac? At least when Lowndes chokes in an important game they don’t do it “in their own house” and they don’t do it in the 15th game of the year.
In fact a “so called by ENR” McPherson coached “choke on the road team” went up to Parkview a few years later and took care of the business Northside couldn’t do “in their own house!!!”.
Lowndes record in State Championship games is 5-0.
yo
October 15th, 2009
10:48 pm
ENR you would think Buck Godfrey would learn his lesson and do a Tomberlin/Nix and go down a classification to finally win his championship. Maybe you should suggest that to old Buck since you seem to know everybody. It seems to be the only thing that works for Tomberlin/Nix.
You continue to measure your accomplishments by your record over Lowndes
(we consider that an honor) and we will measure our accomplishments by
non Tomberlin/Nix type AAAAA State Championships.
yo
October 15th, 2009
10:50 pm
ENR why don’t you suggest to old Buck Godfrey that he find a way to go down a classification like Tomberlin/Nix so he can finally win a State Championship.
McPherson didn’t have to do a Tomberlin/Nix to win his.
AVikingFan
October 16th, 2009
12:33 pm
randy prosen – Valdosta has too many students to drop down to AAAA and Lowndes new high schoool has been put “on hold” due to the school not growing as fast as once thought. incidentally, lowndes is not as big as it was 7 years ago. And during that time the Bd of Edu had the school expanded to accomadate up to 3100 students. We currently have around 2800.
atl1netime
October 16th, 2009
12:47 pm
Eagle fan…..just one question…how are the feeder programs doing…….6th through 9th…and the JV.
yo
October 17th, 2009
1:37 pm
Wow all of my posts finally cleared AJC never never land.
Black Knight from the North
October 21st, 2009
9:24 pm
Coach T,
Please come to Central Gwinnet.We have the talent, but no coaching. Someone of your predigree will kept our athletes from going to make Brookwood,Parkview,Collins Hill,Grayson and the rest of Gwinnett teams better. Please, Please, Please and Please once again Please
Coach Bishop
October 26th, 2009
8:50 pm
I am currently completing my 20th year as a High School Head Football Coach in the State of Maine and your current situation in Valdosta is no different than any other High School in the country who allows the Booster Club to run its football program. Valdosta will never consistently win football games if you change coaches every 3-4 years. Your top Pro, College, and High School programs who always win have one thing in common-COACHING STABILITY. I watched the Lowdnes-Valdosta game several weeks ago and I marvel at talent at both schools, in fact we run the Wing-T offense that Lowndes runs. We will be making our 8th playoff appearance this friday night in my 8th year at the school. What a novel idea it is to coach at a school where we stress academics first, and football second. Over 80 percent of my players are on free or reduced lunch
but we consistently win because my players know that I will be there every year, we will run the same offensive and defensive philosophies every year, and the good people of my school district
allow me to coach their boys every year. I have often wondered if I could coach at the level of
competition in a Georgia or a Florida and after attending clinics these last 20 years I know I could.
Kids are the same all over the country-they need love, a kick in the ass, and a pat on the back. What the kids do not need is to be a part of a football program that is run by a booster club. I wish all the young men in the Valdosta High Football program the best of luck. It is my hope that you get a coach who is allowed to coach the wildcats for at least 10 years. I would like finish by saying that
the team who BLOCKS and TACKLES the best and wins the TURNOVER battle usually wins football games-it is not schemes etc.
Big Dawg
November 5th, 2009
9:49 pm
Michael Carvell You are incorrect sir. The Winningest coach and program (FOOTBALL) is John McKissick…Do your homework man…
Mr. The 2009 year marked Coach McKissick’s
Friday, August 29th, 2008
The 2009 year marks Coach John McKissick’s 58th season coaching the Summerville High School Green Wave football team. Coach McKissick has compiled an outstanding record of 574 wins, 134 losses and 13 ties.**10 state Titles** He is the winningest football coach in the nation at any level.
John McKissick, Athletic Director and Head Football Coach at Summerville High School, grew up in Kingstree, South Carolina and graduated from Kingstree High School. He went on the graduate from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina in 1951 with a B.A. degree in Economics. Later, he attended Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina where he received his M.A. degree in Psychology and Education in 1969. In May of 1994, Coach McKissick was awarded a Doctor of Public Service degree from his alma mater, Presbyterian College.
McKissick was hired as head football coach at Summerville High School in 1952. During the 1993 season, he became the winningest football coach in history on any level when he broke the record of 405 wins held by Gordon Wood of Texas. Coach reached another milestone in 2003 by winning his 500th game. His present record stands at 565 wins, 133 losses and 13 ties. His teams have won the region title 33 out of 57 years and 10 state championships. From 1978 – 1980, his teams compiled a 41-game winning streak, the longest ever in South Carolina. Coach has held the national record for the most victories at one school since 1986.
Coach McKissick was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in Myrtle Beach in 2005. He was awarded the Power of Influence Award by the American Football Association in 2004. In 1999, he was inducted, along with his wife, into the Dorchester School District Two Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 1994, he was named the National High School Football Coach of the Century by Southern California Interscholastic Football Coach Association. Coach was inducted into the newly formed S.C. Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in l993, their charter year, and in 1990, he was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri. The football field in Summerville was dedicated to Coach McKissick and named for him in 1987 and he was inducted into the S.C. Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982. Coach was named the National High School Football Coach of the Year in 1980. In 1993, Sagamore Publishing Company of Champaign, Illinois, published his autobiography, “John McKissick, Called to Coach.” The sequel, “Called to Coach II” was published in 2004.
ty haynes
August 16th, 2011
7:19 pm
Everyone get off of VHS. So what theyve had a few rough seasons what great schools haven’t. now all these people critcize because they are winning state every year. and last i don’t want to hear anything about drugs from a lowndes fans. Their school had wayyyy more drug bust than vhs last year. half their school smokes pot and the other half are rednecks. now they think they’re good cause theyve beaten vhs the last few years. heres a news flash, vhs has more national titles then lowndes does state not to mention our 33-14 record vs them
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December 19th, 2011
12:26 am
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December 20th, 2011
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December 31st, 2011
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marcusowens
February 3rd, 2012
2:52 pm
i was the 8th grade football runningback for valdosta middle school and im going to the high school next so all you wildcats fans get ready.