The Marion County Eagles have new head football coach
Last season’s GHSA class 1A public runner-up will have a new man in charge come next season.
Chris Kirksey, who for four years coached the Marion County Eagles into a region high school football powerhouse, resigned from his position in late April. Now Billy Law, a longtime assistant under Kirksey, will take over head coaching duties, Marion principal Jamie Penoncello told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Law is an experienced coach. He served as an assistant at Macon County for three years before moving to Marion, where he spent the previous 20 years as an assistant coach. This will be his first stint as a head coach.
“We’ve got a great coaching staff,” Penoncello said Monday. “This was an easy transition for us.”
Kirksey, who coached the Eagles to an overall record of 19-3 over his tenure, resigned for “personal reasons,” Penoncello said. The former coach has accepted a job at Byron Middle School in Peach County, The Journal reports.
Marion fell to Irwin County in last season’s state championship game in Atlanta. The The Eagles finished the 2019 season with just three losses, and the program’s first state championship appearance since 2013.
The Eagles are not the only area 1A public program with a new coach.
Region rival Manchester hired James Moore, previously the coach at East Lawrence High in Trinity, Alabama, in late January, after Evan Hochstetler was removed from the role for undisclosed reasons.
