When Mount de Sales Cavalier head coach Robert Slocum starts the 2013 season, he will have one less thing to worry about.
His arch nemisis, Barney Hester, will be gone.
Superman will no longer have to deal with Lex Luthor.
Hester, who was head coach and athletic director at Tattnall Square Academy, will be moving to the public sector after 30 years at the north Macon private school. Thursday evening, the Bibb Public School system announced that Hester will be the new head football coach and athletic director at Howard High School, replacing David Cape, who resigned from that same position earlier this academic year.
Hester will take over a program that has yet to finish above the .500 mark or make the playoffs in their first five years of existence. He had flirted with openings at Westside and Howard before settling on Howard.
His old school sent out a release which read in part, "The face of Tattnall Square Academy football, Coach Barney Hester, announced he would not be returning as head football coach and faculty member for the 2013-2014 school year. Coach Hester stated that after 31 years at TSA, he felt the time was right to seek new opportunities. The entire family of TSA, including the Board of Directors, administrators, faculty, staff, students and parents, wish coach Hester much success in this very personal decision."
He built an empire at Tattnall Square, only five miles away from his new position, winning 11 GISA titles and 306 games in 31 years, with only two losing season under his watch. In 38 years of coaching, his record is a somewhat impressive 322-135-8 with 19 region championships to add to his ledger. Only five coaches in state history have won more games than Hester. He is third among active coaches behind Lincoln County’s Larry Campbell (470 wins) and Bowdon’s Dwight Hochstetler (326 wins). Hester is one win behind former Thomson head coach Luther Welsh for fifth all-time in state history. Only two Middle Georgia coaches have more wins – Dan Pitts at Mary Persons (346) and Robert Davis at Warner Robins and Westside (352).
While he built that dynasty, Howard has struggled, going only 5-45 in five seasons of play in the GHSA and has never been to the postseason and has never won more than three games in a season. This season's Husky team, under Cape, Howard failed to win a contest in the 2012 campaign.
So when the 2013 season starts and Mount de Sales hosts Tattnall Square at Cavalier Fields, Robert Slocum will have one less thing to worry about. The coach that has been De Sales' answer to kryptonite will not be on the other sideline. While one school will be looking for a new coach
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