Luckie named head coach
Published 10:48 am Friday, December 9, 2005
THOMASVILLE — After 28 years of being an assistant, Bill Luckie is getting his head-coaching shot.
The former Cairo and Thomasville assistant was named Wednesday as the head coach at Northgate High School, after five years as an assistant with the Vikings.
“It’s a very exciting time for me,” Luckie said.
Luckie replaces the departed Ron Beaucham, a former Thomas County Central assistant, who left after eight years with the school.
Northgate went 8-3 a year ago, finishing third in Region 4-AAAA, losing to Baldwin County in the first round of the playoffs.
Luckie expressed optimism about the next season’s possibilities.
“We won’t be quite as experienced (as last year), but we’ve got some good players,” Luckie said.
Luckie was a former assistant coach under Jack Johnson at Cairo (1982-87), Mitchell-Baker (1988-95) and Thomasville (1996-2000). Luckie said he has been interviewed in the past for other head-coaching vacancies but didn’t accept because of loyalties to the staff he was associated with. Other schools wanted just him and not the assistants he was with.
“I really didn’t want to be a head coach like that,” Luckie added.
Though Luckie is in Newnan, which is in north Georgia, there’s still a part of him that misses south Georgia.
“I’ve still got a lot of friends in Cairo, Camilla and Thomasville,” Luckie added.
