Barney Hester returning to Tattnall as head football coach
The school made the announcement Tuesday morning, one month after revealing the football stadium at the school would soon bear Hester's name.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Barney Hester is returning to Tattnall Square Academy as head football coach.
The school made the announcement Tuesday morning, one month after revealing the football stadium at the school would soon bear Hester’s name.
“COACH BARNEY HESTER IS BACK HOME as our new Head Football Coach!” the school said in a Facebook post, adding Hester is returning to the school’s full-time staff immediately.
Hester led the Trojans to 306 wins, 11 state football championships and six state track championships as head coach from 1982-2012. He also served as athletic director (1982-1998) and head of school (1998-2009). He was named Macon Touchdown Club Coach of the Year five times and earned GISA Coach of the Year honors 12 times. He was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Tattnall Hall of Fame in 2014. With 340 career wins (306 at Tattnall, 18 at Bibb County’s Howard High School, 9 at Gordon-Ivey and 7 at Josey Academy), he ranks sixth in total victories among Georgia high school football coaches, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
Following a three-year stop at Josey and four years at Gordon-Ivey, Hester was Tattnall’s head football coach from 1982 to 2012 before taking over the head football coaching position at Howard from 2013-2017. He retired from coaching in 2018 and became the athletic director for Bibb County Schools, serving in that role until 2021. In February of this year, he announced his candidacy for the Bibb County School Board District 4 seat, for which he ran unopposed.
“My family and I are excited and honored that I will be returning to Tattnall Square Academy as the Head Football Coach,” Hester said. “look forward to the challenges ahead and would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Absher for providing me with this opportunity. Over the coming days, I hope to spend time getting acquainted with all the new faces at Tattnall and reconnecting with those from past days. This program has been built on a solid foundation. My goal as football coach will be to prepare the team to continue that winning tradition. Go Tattnall!”
The school thanked Coach John Garrett Abernathy for his “dedication and investment in building our program over the last 5 years to be ready for future success.” Abernathy, who replaced Chance Jones in 2020, was 32-24 in his five seasons as head coach. Jones was 30-15 in his four seasons (2016-2019). Clint Morgan, who replaced Hester in 2013, was 22-11 in his three seasons.
Coach Hester spoke on Wednesday about the “opportunity to come back home”. After retiring two years ago, and traveling the world with his wife, Hester tells 41NBC’s Justin Dierkes, “there is only so much traveling you can do.” Hester says he has come back to his passion, which is being involved in these young men’s lives again.
“I’m certainly humble to go back in that position and a lot of times you don’t have those opportunities; I did” said Coach Hester. “I was there (Tattnall Square Academy) for 31 years before we were very fortunate to have some really good players, good coaches, and I’ve had some opportunities to play in some big games, and to win those games, and more than anything, I wanted to go back because listen, you miss the day-to-day with the students. I got in this business because of the students. (41NBC’S Justin Dierkes) said ‘once a coach, always a coach’; that’s true. My passion is for the students I deal with, giving them the best opportunities to be the very best they can be, to put them in a position to be the very best they can be. That involvement is probably the reason that I’m back in this position.”
Hester went on to speak about the team he will be taking over in 2025. “It’s going to be a young team. They had 14 seniors that played a big part in those wins the past few years. We are going to have to work, going to have to build. They’re excited. I think we are going to have to work on getting the numbers up a little bit. Typically the years I was at Tattnall, we would have anywhere from 50-60 players on the team. The numbers are down just a little bit right now but I think the young men are in the school its just a matter of convincing them to be apart of the program. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead and can’t wait to get out there and start preparation.”
