Wilco hires former Baldwin OC Ward

Published 12:11 pm Friday, May 31, 2024

Just a few weeks ago, Wilkinson County High School placed a new name on its football stadium to honor alum and current NFL player, Bud Dupree.

Now a new coach is set to lead the Warriors into Bud Dupree Stadium this fall. The school announced Wednesday that former Baldwin High School offensive coordinator Jamoski Ward has been named head football coach.

A 36-year-old Albany native, Ward had been Baldwin’s OC since 2017. Wilco will be his first head coaching job.

“I’m very excited,” Ward said Friday. “I think it’s a place where we can have a lot of success. The school has always had athletes, so I’m real excited about the opportunity.”

After graduating from Albany High, Ward remained in his hometown to play quarterback at Albany State. His coaching career began at Dougherty High as QB coach and pass game coordinator from 2010 to 2012. Ward then went to Central High School in Macon where he handled similar duties in addition to serving as the program’s academic coordinator and JV head coach. In 2017 he came to Baldwin, a school that, like Wilco, is known for churning out athletes. While here as OC he helped the Braves earn seven consecutive playoff berths and one region championship (2018).

If that career path sounds familiar, it’s because Ward was following Jesse Hicks, the only head coach he’s ever worked under.

“Coach Hicks cares deeply about the kids and always talks about the importance of academics,” Ward said. “He is also very detailed and organized. He’s always the first person at the fieldhouse and the last person to leave the fieldhouse. Those are some traits I plan to take with me over to Wilco.”

Hicks was not retained at Baldwin following the 2023 season. He’s now head coach at East Laurens.

May is a little late in the high school head football coach hiring season, so Ward has to get to work immediately. He says his first order of business is to build a staff and start talking to players/potential players on the phone. Summer practice is scheduled to begin Monday, and the team is expected to take part in a few padded camps over the next couple of months.

Ward inherits a team that went 6-5 last season and finished second in Region 5-A Division 2. That was after a rocky start due in part to the fact that the Warriors’ previous head coach Keldrick Burke left to become principal at East Laurens just a couple of weeks before the start of the campaign. Wilco bounced back though, winning five of six to close out the regular season before losing to Lincoln County in the first round of the state playoffs.

“I thought they did an extremely good job,” Ward said. “The kids really pulled together after a tough start. By region play they got things going. It shows the nature of the kids and the nature of that community. There’s a lot of pride for Wilco athletics there.”