Piedmont Hires New Head Coach

Piedmont Academy’s football tradition was enough to lure Rhett Farmer back to the head coaching ranks.

The current assistant at Tattnall Square Academy in Macon said Tuesday he was impressed with the past success of the Cougar program as well as the community support for the school.

“Everything was right for me in my career to be a head coach again,” said Farmer. “It was a good time in my life to become involved. I look forward to working on taking a program that is already established to the next level. I plan on being here a long time.”

Farmer is currently a seventh and eighth grade assistant at TSA. He previously worked as a varsity assistant for the Trojans but requested a step back once he had a family. Farmer has still been helping on Friday nights with the varsity program.
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After arriving at TSA in 1997, Farmer would later be the head coach at Flint River for two seasons from 1999-2000 before returning to the Macon school, which has set the tone for GISA football programs under Barney Hester.

Farmer said he plans to meet with the Piedmont players this Friday and will conduct spring practice. The date of spring drills will depend on when the school’s baseball season ends, the new head coach said.

The players will also continue to work throughout the summer as they prepare to defend their region championship.
As far as schemes go, Farmer said he will “keep things simple.”

“We will run more than we throw it,” he said. “We will run multiple sets out of the I-formation. It won’t be a surprise that as a disciple of Barney Hester I plan to be triple-option oriented. Of course, you have to have the personnel to run it. We simply will try to do what we do better than other people.”

Farmer, a 1992 graduate of John Milledge Academy, said Wes Tanner and Johnny Stallings will coach the defensive unit for the Cougars with Bubba Nelson coaching the backs on offense. Dan Funt will be the strength and conditioning coach. Additional assistants may be added at a later date, Farmer said.

Farmer replaced Beau Johnson, who has taken a position at Southwest Georgia Academy. Johnson guided the Cougars to the region championship this past fall.