PANAMA CITY — After a lengthy coaching career in Georgia, Jeff Lee was ready for a new challenge.
North Bay Haven Charter Academy fit that criterion, and the youngest high school in Bay County decided that Lee fits theirs as on Monday he was announced the head football coach to guide the Buccaneers.
Lee replaces Jared Hale, who was not retained as head football coach in January after guiding the program since its inception. North Bay Haven has played varsity football for only two seasons, and in 2014 produced a record of 2-7.
Lee has been confronted by those numbers before in a lengthy coaching career, for the past 12 at Dawson County High School in Dawsonville, Ga. Lee’s record at Dawson County was 48-74 and included playoff runs in 2010 and 2012 for a school that had a long absence from the postseason.
In addition to his career as a coach, Lee played college and professional football. He has guided teams to state playoffs at four different schools, all in Georgia, ranging from classes 1A to 5A in size. For the past 12 years he was the head football coach, strength coach and FCA sponsor at Dawson County.
North Bay Haven Principal Meredith Higgins said that Lee will join the faculty at North Bay Haven by April 1 to begin preparing for spring football. He will be introduced to players and parents Friday at a reception from 5-6 p.m. in the school cafeteria.
Lee was recommended by a search committee that conducted five interviews out of a pool of 10 applicants, Higgins said.
“The committee was really impressed with his seasoned experience and the approach he takes to building a program,” Higgins said. “His experienced building programs and working at schools of all sizes was an asset, we felt.
“Charismatic leadership is what we saw in him.”
Higgins said that former head coach Hale is still employed at the school.
Lee resigned his position at Dawson County on Jan. 6, according to media reports. Before arriving in Dawsonville, Ga., Lee was head football coach and athletic director at Jones County High School in Gray, Ga., where he resurrected a program in the midst of a 28-game losing streak and won a region championship.
He also started the football program at Twiggs County High School in Jeffersonville and took that school to the playoffs in three years. Prior to that he was head coach and athletic director at Hardaway High School in Columbus, and head coach at Charlton County High School in Folkston and at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.
As a player, Lee came under the tutelage of head coach Erk Russell, a legendary figure in the state, at Georgia Southern University. He went on to play professional football for the Orlando Renegades and Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League and in 1987 during the NFL strike year was a replacement player for the Atlanta Falcons.
Lee has a specialist degree from Lincoln Memorial College, a master’s degree in administration from Georgia College and State University and a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Georgia Southern University.
