Jones County hires Justin Montgomery as new head football coach

Montgomery joins the Greyhounds from Carrollton High School, where he served as defensive coordinator for a team that went 14-1 and won a region title in 2024.

GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Jones County Board of Education voted Tuesday night to approve the hiring of Justin Montgomery as the new head football coach at Jones County High School, according to 41NBC’s Justin Dierkes.

Montgomery joins the Greyhounds from Carrollton High School, where he served as defensive coordinator for a team that went 14-1 and won a region title in 2024. Carrollton reached the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) Class 6A state championship game but fell 38-24 to Grayson.

Montgomery brings more than a decade of coaching experience to Jones County. According to his LinkedIn page, he began his coaching career as a defensive line coach at John Milledge Academy in 2012 before spending three years as an assistant at Berry College. He later served as an assistant at Warner Robins High School and Valdosta High School before taking on the defensive coordinator role at Carrollton in 2021.

Montgomery will be the 22nd head coach in program history, which dates back to 1929, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website (ghsfha.org). He replaces Mike Chastain, who resigned last week after six seasons in Gray. Chastain became the school’s winningest head football coach with a 56-20 record, capturing three region titles during his tenure.

Justin Dierkes spoke with the new Greyhounds’ head football coach after the board meeting.

“I chose Jones County for two things: proximity to family and excellence,” Montgomery said. “Excellence in academics and athletics. I’m really excited. I’m ready to get to work. We are going to carry a tradition that is already here, make sure we maximize that. I’m going to bring the leadership I have learned. We’re going to take just a work-minded mentality and bringing habits. It’s consistency. It’s bringing it every day.”

Coach Monty also spoke about what he sees in the Greyhounds’ student-athletes. “Yeah, I’ve seen these guys,” he said. “I know that they’ve done well, and that’s a testament to the coaching staff that’s been here. It’s also a testament to this community, and how much they care and pour into this community, but I think this is the place you can develop a program, not just a team. Just that allureness, because at Carrollton we’ve seen how that process works of being able to develop your feeder programs really well, so that’s attractive to us. I’ll continue to study them. I’m fired up to meet them tomorrow (Wednesday), so we will continue to evaluate everyone as we go.”

Montgomery left a message to the Jones County community as well. “We are going to be a tough team,” he said. “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do, so that’s what we are going to build: a brand of football and that’s going to be our culture. Go Greyhounds!”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Superintendent Charles Lundy declined to comment on an ongoing Gray Police investigation into the Jones County High School Touchdown Club’s finances. 41NBC first reported the investigation last week, and no new details have been released. Chastain has not been named in connection with the investigation, and former athletic director Chad Alligood, who also resigned last week, previously told 41NBC that the booster club operates independently from the athletic department and was not a factor in his decision to resign.