OAKWOOD — Geoff Chaffin was a bit shocked when he received the offer to be Johnson High's next baseball coach.
"I really don't know how to put it into words," he said. "It took me a second to really figure out this was happening. There was a lot of emotion of this was real ... I'm actually going to get my shot at being a head coach. It almost doesn't seem like it's true."
Athletics Director Tony Wagner made the official announcement Tuesday afternoon.
“Coach Chaffin is well respected for his character, integrity and baseball knowledge,” Wagner said. “We are excited to have him lead our program and our young men on the diamond.”
After a 3-18 season in 2019, the Knights had more than doubled their win total and were 7-7 when COVID-19 canceled the season in March.
"The baseball program had made great strides over the past couple of years and has a number of veterans returning next season," Wagner continued.
It'll be Chaffin's first head coaching job, but his experience runs deep. Over the last couple of seasons, he's been coaching middle school baseball and was an assistant baseball coach before that at Chestatee and Flowery Branch.
The South Gwinnett graduate and current physical education teacher at Riverbend also played baseball at Truett-Connell and was a member of the cross country team. He says he's not only excited but ready to get to work.
"I told them in my interview that I didn't have the magic bullet or make any promises," he said. "But what I can promise is I'm going to do right by the kids. I'm going to love them, make sure they're going to be taken care of, and that they're going to become the best version of themselves they can be on and off the diamond. Now, we're going to work as hard as we possibly can because I want every team that we play to remember who were are. I can't make any promises about wins or losses. I just want to work hard and sneak up on some people next season."
