In Chattooga's lovely valleys ...

My alma mater, Chattooga High, got beat Friday night.
The loss was unexpected, but not shocking. What made the game unusual was that it was the debut of a new head coach for the Indians, who was not only coaching his first game at CHS, but was coaching his first game anywhere.
Last Saturday, longtime CHS coach John Starr was fired. His firing came after an upset loss to Armurchee. The loss, which dropped Chattooga to 3-1, figured in Starr's abrupt termination but it wasn't the cause.
While the coach has been successful at Chattooga, a program that was an absolute shambles when he took it over, Starr's teams were often sloppy and rarely as successful as they might have been. Last season. for instance, after as solid regular season they lost in the first round of the playoffs to an inferior team.
No one at Chattooga wants to admit it publicly, but the common complaint about Starr, an African American, was that he did not maintain discipline with his black players. No one in Summerville wants to say that because they don't want to set off a racial powder keg.
Enter Jimmy Lenderman, the long ago CHS football star and distinguished military careerist. Despite a resume lacking in experience, Lenderman was hired as athletic director before this season and you can bet his first priority was to get the football program "under control."I don't know if the decision was made then to "get Starr" or not. I suspect it was.
I went to the Chattooga-Cedartown game three weeks and something was definitely in the air. Despite an impressive win over the Buldogs and a big home crowd, almost everyone I talked to had a sense of forboding. I was told that had Chattooga lost that game or had there been any incidents on the field, Starr was going to get fired then. The call had already been made. Apparently the impressive win angered some folks who were ready to see the coach axed.
Starr lasted one more week when the the upset loss to Armuchee and a cloudy post-game "incident" involving a few players served as the pretext to do the deed.
Starr was let go less than 24 hours later. The principal said the program needed to "go in another direction" which is what bureaucrats say when they don't want to tell you the truth. The school board "don't know nuttin about nutting" which of course isn't true at all. They long ago knew Starr was headed out and left it up to the principal and AD to do the deed and keep the blood spatter off them.
The administration's lack of thought here popped up immediately when Lenderman couldn't get anyone to accept the interim coaching job. Starr has some people who were very loyal to him personally.
So now you have a very talented football team -- just ask Northwest Whitfield -- with a first time head coach running the show. Nice planning fellows.
Lenderman's career mark fell to 0-1 as the Indians got beat by Sonoraville on Friday. It was another game they should have won, but one they can't blame on Starr.
Hopefully the team will salvage what had been a very promising season.
That the kids on this team are now suffering because the elected officials and the school's administration didn't have the guts to deal with their perceived problems in a forthright manner BEFORE the season is unforgivable.
Starr had his problems and a good AD had ever right to deal with the coach and see that those problems were addressed, but I don't know anyone who thinks that's what happened at Chattooga. Starr was a marked man from Day One of the new administration.
They got him.
Now they have a mess.