At the time, Valdosta football coach Rick Tomberlin felt like he had everything going in the right direction.
Numbers are up, he said.
Weight room participation is strong and reaping benefits.
His rigorous academic guidelines have decreased ineligibility issues.
When we talked in late August, Tomberlin said he felt like he was turning the program around.
He was excited and sensed great things would be happening at the state’s most fabled program. He was finally feeling comfortable at a school where expectations are heavy and second-guessing is as natural as breathing.
Rick Tomberlin and his wife Angela.
He felt his fourth year would be his team’s best year.
Instead, his fourth year has turned out to be his final year.
Tomberlin was told Tuesday that his contract would not be renewed. He’ll be allowed to finish the season and teach through the end of the school year, but he won’t be back in 2010 to continue what he started when he took the job in 2006.
Tomberlin definitely knew what he was getting into when he left Washington County four years ago.
He is the only man to have been the head coach at both Valdosta and hated county rival Lowndes. And he is the only man to have been fired from the head coaching job at both schools.
In 1991, he was let go after three seasons at Lowndes for failing to beat Valdosta.
This week, he was let go in the middle of his fourth season at Valdosta for failing to beat Lowndes.
I’ve known Tomberlin nearly 18 years, going back to his first season at Washington County and my first year at the Augusta Chronicle. The Hawks were 9-0 and headed for a showdown with Greene County, which was also 9-0, in the final game of the regular season. Tomberlin walked right over to me as I came in to watch the end of practice, and we hit it off from the start.
He’s as honest, caring and forthcoming today as he was then, and it bothers me that he’s the victim of unrealistic expectations and old-school politics at Valdosta.
The landscape has changed, and that’s what the folks at Valdosta don’t understand. That program will never be what it was for five decades, when it rolled up victories and won state title after state title. It’s still the nation’s winningest team, 60 victories ahead of the next program, but Valdosta hasn’t won a state championship since 1998 and hasn’t won more than nine games since 2003.
Blame it on anything. Blame it on everything.
Playing in 1-AAAAA, the toughest region in the state.
Decreasing enrollment. Lowndes has 800 more students than Valdosta.
Decreasing talent level.
Decreasing interest.
Tomberlin is 19-20 with the Wildcats, but 18-11 since a 1-9 start in 2006. Valdosta is 4-3 this year and finished with the toughest part of its schedule, so the postseason is a distinct possibility.
I think a trip deep into the playoffs would be a fitting end for Tomberlin’s time at Valdosta.
When we last talked, he told me he wasn’t scared of being fired, and if you know Tomberlin, you can see him saying that. The last time he was let go – from Lowndes in 1991 -- he took the job at Washington County and won three state championships in his first six years.
Something good will happen for Tomberlin. Something better than what he received at Valdosta.
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