It didn’t take long after the news that Bill Navas had resigned as head football coach for the Jefferson Dragons to find a new head coach to lead the Dragons forward.
The Jefferson school board unanimously approved the hiring of T. McFerrin to take the reigns of the JHS football program.
McFerrin, a winner of over 300 games, comes to Jefferson after being retired since 2004. He last coached for South Gwinnett, a position he had held since 1998.
McFerrin’s record speaks for itself. He’s ranked eighth among the top 50 all time Georgia coaches with 200 wins or more with a record of 301 wins, 93 losses and 48 ties, a 77-percent win record.
His teams have won 11 region championships, had nine undefeated regular seasons, played in three state championship games and won one state championship.
He was twice named the Atlanta Touchdown Club Coach of the Year, and was named head coach in the 1994 Georgia-Florida All Star game.
Jefferson school superintendent John Jackson recommended McFerrin.
“It has been my good fortune to work with T. McFerrin. I cannot imagine being in a position to come before you with a name of a better football coach, a better teacher and a better role model than T. McFerrin.”
McFerrin was clear as to what brought him to Jefferson.
“Dr. (John) Jackson,” he said after the vote that gave him the job. “I worked for him at Elbert County when he was a principal, and I don’t know of anybody who could be a better superintendent in the state of Georgia. He made the phone call, and it was hard to turn him down. I’m looking forward to working with him and Dr. Smith and the rest of the staff here.”
McFerrin said another thing that brought him to JHS was the school’s reputation as well as that of the community.
“Everybody that is here or that has been here talks so highly about it. A friend of mine that goes back 30 years teaches here and has told me that there was no place he had been like this, on account of the way the kids are and the families are and the support of the parents for the teachers. That’s very important. That’s about the only thing that could have gotten me out of retirement, I think.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
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