Longtime Middle Georgia coach Joel Ingram moving to Bowdon

Ingram will join Bowdon as assistant head coach, strength coordinator and offensive line coach.

1 hour ago

Tucker Sargent,

FILE: Joel Ingram on 41NBC's Coach's Corner with Bill Shanks in 2021 ahead of his final season as Washington County's head football coach. (Feb. 2021)

DUBLIN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Longtime Middle Georgia football coach Joel Ingram is leaving the area to take a position at Bowdon High School, joining one of the state’s hottest programs.

According to Bowdon football, Ingram will serve as assistant head coach, strength and conditioning coordinator and offensive line coach for the Red Devils.

Bowdon, located about an hour southwest of Atlanta near the Alabama state line, has won four straight state championships and is entering a new era after head coach Rich Fendley left for Rockmart. The program recently hired Jamie Abrams as head coach. Abrams previously led Lamar County and Cedartown, going 65-19-1 record as a head coach, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. He joined the Red Devils in 2025 as their defensive coordinator.

Ingram, an Alabama native who played college football at Jacksonville State University, told 41NBC the move has been building for some time but ultimately came down to family. He said the decision allows him to be closer to help care for his mother in Alabama.

“It’s more than the success they’ve had,” he said. “It was more of a logistics thing for me with my mother. When I went and visited with them, it just felt like home. With all those factors considered, I just felt like it was a good time for a reset and maybe take my trade somewhere else.”

Ingram was head coach at Washington County High School in Sandersville from 2006-2021. During that time, he went 132-59-1, reaching the state championship game twice and making deep playoff runs in multiple seasons, including a semifinal appearance in his first year and quarterfinal appearances in 2012 and 2018.

Robert Edwards replaced Ingram as the Golden Hawks’ head coach after the 2021 season, and Ingram landed at Dublin as offensive line coach under head coach Roger Holmes. He’s been on staff there since.

Ingram said his children, who stayed in Sandersville through high school are now in college, supported his decision to move to Bowdon.

He said he plans to finish out his current responsibilities in Dublin next week and start the transition to Bowdon after spring break.