The 2024 Football Season will kickoff its first Friday slate of games tonight and as thousands of fans, players, coaches and administrators experience the action state wide, I want to dedicate my first Daily Dive of the season to Kevin Giddens—who passed away on June, 19 at the age of 59. Coach Giddens leaves an incredible legacy for decades of work and the Corky Kell Classic kickoff luncheon was usually the first of many times Score Atlanta and Giddens would cross paths during the school year.
Born in Hawkinsville, Ga. coach Giddens spent all of his career serving his community and the state of Georgia as a whole through education and athletics. While his mustache and imposing frame made him easily recognizable, his kind-heartedness and dedication to the community was just as prominent.
In an article with the Moultrie Observer, Mr. Wayne Grandy wrote the following about coach Giddens.
Former Colquitt County football coach Jim Hughes said Kevin Giddens had the best “people skills” of any coach he ever worked with. And former GHSA executive director Robin Hines and Moultrie-Colquitt County Parks and Recreation Authority athletic director James Kling echoed that assessment Wednesday after Giddens died unexpectedly at his home. The longtime coach, school administrator, athletic director, state high school and recreation official was working for the MCCPRA and had first moved to Colquitt County in 1994 as the offensive line coach for the Packers football team. He had retired from the GHSA last year to return to Moultrie full-time and take on a second tour of duty with the recreation authority. “He was the most genuine person I have ever known,” said Kling, Giddens’s MCCPRA co-worker and long-time fishing partner. “He could be tough, but he truly cared about people and definitely about his football players. “He was my best friend and would do anything for me.” Hines, Giddens’s boss at the GHSA, said he will remember Giddens’s friendship. “He was the guy who would do anything for anybody,” said Hines, who recently retired at the GHSA executive director.” And he was an outstanding administrator, Hines added. “He had the ability to talk to people, even in tough situations,” he said. “He was knowledgeable and there was never a more organized associate director for the GHSA than Kevin Giddens. “If you could imagine the perfect guy for the GHSA, it was him. What he did wasn’t always easy, but it seemed like he did things effortlessly. He brought us to a new level.”
Giddens was also responsible for the introduction of bass fishing as a GHSA Sport while he served as a associate director.
For more information on the career of Coach Giddens CLICK HERE
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