Milton Hires West Forsyth’s Clack as Head Football Coach

By Mike Blum

MILTON, GA -- The Milton Eagles have a new head football coach, hiring Adam Clack from region rival West Forsyth to replace Howie DeCristofaro, who resigned several weeks ago after six years at the school.

Clack has coached at West Forsyth since the school opened in 2007, and was the head coach the last three years. The Wolverines posted a 20-12 record under Clack, twice reaching the state playoffs. In its nine seasons of fielding a varsity football, West Forsyth has never had a losing record, going 11-2 in 2011 and 10-2 in 2012.

Milton went 39-28 in six seasons under DeCristofaro, the only coach in school history to finish his tenure with a winning record. The Eagles made the playoffs five times in those six seasons, including a three-year stretch from 2012 to ’14 when Milton went 26-9, including a region championship in 2014 when the Eagles scored their only two state playoff victories in school history.

After the most recent reclassification changes by the Georgia High School Association prior to the 2016-17 school year, Milton and West Forsyth were placed in the same region in 7A. West Forsyth won last season’s game 31-6, with the two teams finishing tied for third in the region. Both lost in the first round of the state playoffs.

Milton returns a number of starters from last season’s team, which won its last three games to finish 5-5 in the regular season before losing 24-10 to unbeaten Norcross. Among those returning are Region 5-AAAAAAA Defensive Player of the Year Justin Blanks and quarterback Jordan Yates, who was also a starter for Milton’s region champion basketball team.

Clack is one of five new head football coaches in North Fulton, with only three of the head coaches among the eight public schools in North Fulton remaining in their positions for 2017.

John Ford left Roswell to take the head coaching job at Buford, and was replaced by Matt Kemper, the head coach the past two seasons at Johns Creek. Kemper was replaced by Matt Helmerich, who comes to North Fulton after serving as a head coach in Florida.

Northview hire James Thomson also has a coaching background in Florida, and tales over for Chad Davenport, who resigned after seven seasons at the school. Centennial has hired former Gainesville and Coffee assistant Michael Perry, who coached Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson at Gainesville. Perry replaces Lenny Gregory, who returns to Gwinnett County as the head coach at Collins Hill after two seasons with the Knights.

With the recent coaching changes, Cambridge’s Craig Bennett is now the longest serving head coach among North Fulton public schools, having coached the Bears for all five of their varsity football seasons. Alpharetta’s Jacob Nichols and Chattahoochee’s Vince Strine both have three years as head coach at their respective schools.

Blessed Trinity’s Tim McFarlin has the longest tenure of any high school head coach in North Fulton at his current school – six years. McFarlin was previously head coach for 10 years at Roswell before taking the job at Blessed Trinity after a few seasons out of coaching.

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