Thomson High School is still searching for a baseball skipper after legendary coach Terry Holder -- now a P.E. teacher at Thomson Middle -- turned down an offer to lead the Bulldogs baseball team last week.
Coach Holder said the decision boiled down to the amount of time he wishes to remain in the teaching and coaching profession.
"Anytime you make a commitment like that, I think you need to be able to be in a situation where you can commit four or five years to be fair to the kids, to be fair to the school, the community and everything. I'm just not sure I would have that many years to commit," he said last Friday.
"I'm really appreciative of the opportunity," Coach Holder said. "I just don't think that I would be doing them right if I accepted it."
He will continue to work with the TMS weight lifting and football programs next year, but he added that whoever takes the job will be coming into a good situation.
"The opportunity is there to be successful, whoever they get," Coach Holder said.
THS Principal Rudy Falana said he will be interviewing a short list of candidates to take over for the recently relieved Brad Smith in the coming days. Superintendent of Schools Mark Petersen said one of the two candidates on the list is currently a faculty member in the McDuffie County school system.
About the same time that officials returned to the drawing board for baseball, a softball coach was hired. Mr. Falana said Jason Osborn, a former softball and baseball coach from Hephzibah will take over for long-time coach Lisa Cody. Coach Osborn will teach math at THS next year.
According to Mr. Falana, Coach Osborn has already met with the softball team and is in the process of beginning a summer workout program, which he said had not previously been in place.
Coach Osborn was not the first hire from the Hephzibah coaching staff. Hephzibah Offensive Coordinator and Athletic Director Gary Fulcher was hired to take over offensive coordinator duties for the Thomson football program last month.
"I'm proud of him. He'll do a real good job," Hephzibah Head Coach Todd Booker told Morris News Service shortly after learning of Coach Fulcher's move.
