For multiple reasons, JCHS athletic director Chad Alligood’s phone began to ring in the latter half of last week.
One part of those inquiries had to do with those from Alligood’s former school, Northside, seeking to find out more about their newly announced girls and boys basketball head coaches.
The other? Phone calls regarding the now two vacant head coaching openings at Jones County high school after Thursday’s announcement that Buck and ChoRhonda Harris, both of whom have guided the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds to success in recent years, will be moving on to take on the same roles at Northside-Warner Robins.
“It’s tough; that’s what happens when you have success. When coaches win like they have at Jones County, you expect that to happen and people to come calling. That’s part of our business. As an AD, you’d rather have it that way than nobody wanting our coaches,” Alligood said. “Most times, you are losing just one. Now, we’re looking for two. It’ll be tough to replace them.”
Both coaches will remain at JCHS through the end of the school year. In fact, on Thursday afternoon, hours after being announced as the Eagles new head coach, Buck Harris was at Lake Jonesco Golf Course as he continues on as the Greyhounds boys golf coach through the end of the season.
For both teams, the task zeroes in on lining up coaches that will have the opportunity to coach in one of the state’s top basketball regions. Last year, all four of the region’s postseason teams were in the boys quarterfinals with Eagles Landing being this year’s state runner-up. Union Grove’s girls were ranked in the state’s top five most of this season.
“With what both of them have done, it’s made these jobs very attractive.
They’ve proven that you can win here in a region where you’re playing the best teams in the state. It’s a very attractive job. We’ve already had lots of calls on it,” Alligood said. “We’re going to have a tough choice to make in picking what’s best for Jones County. We’ll have some good candidates to choose from, and the success that Buck and ChoRhonda have had, they’ve made it an attractive job.”
But the level of play is not the only selling point.
There’s also an off-court aspect – fan support.
“This is a great community that supports athletics,” Alligood said.
“That’s something that coaches ask off the bat, about the community and its support. The way that Jones County supports athletics, that’s a plus for us.”
Both coaches leave with a high level of recent success. The Greyhounds are coming off a Sweet 16 berth one season after a Final Four appearance, with the Lady Hounds this year advancing to the Elite Eight.
Now, both will look to take that success southward to Northside. Buck Harris will look to turn around the fortunes of a boys program that last won double-digit games in 2019-20 when they went 11-13. The girls program will also be in search of a turnaround, having won a combined 10 games the past two seasons.
But while Jones County’s former coaches look ahead to what’s next, the task in Gray is to bring in coaches to continue the recent run of success.
Alligood says that, while there’s a preferred timetable of when it would be desired to have a new coach hired, it won’t dictate hiring someone for the sake of doing so.
“It won’t be drug out.
We have a timeline in our heads, but if we don’t have the right candidate, we won’t settle,” Alligood said. “We don’t want to put a deadline on it.”
