The 2025 coaching carousel filled an opening on Thursday and also sent shockwaves when another major job opened unexpectedly. Flowery Branch found its new head coach in Michael Perry—a Hall County native who was the head coach at Union County for the past four seasons. Perry was East Hall’s coach in 2019 and 2020, was a former Gainesville High player and was the offensive coordinator for Deshaun Watson on Gainesville’s 2012 state championship team. Perry’s Union County teams were 23-22 in four seasons. He was head coach at Centennial for 8-4 and 7-3 teams in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Conversely, Cedartown announced it was parting ways with head coach Jamie Abrams—a move that was tough for coach Abrams and many others state wide.
“It’s a little tough to take,” Abrams told the AJC. “I’ve done nothing to breach my contract. It wasn’t because we weren’t winning. It wasn’t because we weren’t getting players into school (college). I believe in effort, and we talk about relentless effort all the time, and I feel that we did that. Others didn’t quite see it that way.”
Abrams said that he relished his time in Cedartown and praised the community. In his five seasons at Cedartown, Abrams led the Bulldogs to a 50-14 record with three region titles and a Class 4A runner-up finish in 2022. In the five seasons before Abrams was hired, Cedartown was 27-28.
“Cedartown has been great to me and my family,” he said. “I would like to thank the entire community in Cedartown for making Friday nights special the last five years. There’s no ill will.”
Cedartown was 9-2 in 2024 with losses to Cartersville and Cambridge, teams that reached the state quarterfinals. Cedartown’s top player, Tae Harris, signed last month with Georgia Tech. Abrams previously coached at Lamar County, where his record was 15-7 in two seasons. He was defensive coordinator at McEachern when Cedartown hired him in 2020. His 2022 Cedartown team lost to Benedictine 14-13 in the state finals. Cedartown has not won a state title since 1963.
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