Valdosta (Georgia) High School will not re-new the contract of head football coach Rick Tomberlin. That is not shocking news to anyone familiar with high school football in this state. He has been a total disaster while at the helm of this once storied program. Tomberlin was in over his head from the beginning at the AAAAA level, and he arrived at Valdosta very much overrated to begin with. His tremendous success at the AA and AAA level at Washington County was because of the outstanding talent he enjoyed year after year after year. He had the luxury of having the likes of Takeo Spikes and Robert Edwards playing on his WACO teams. And the schedule at that level was much, much softer than what he faced week to week down south. To Tomberlin's credit, he was one of the state's first coaches to buy completely into the 'Bigger, Faster, Stronger' program of conditioning. He had his Washington County kids on the program year 'round, and schools just could not match up to his power style of football. He dominated the competition until everyone else caught on and started to become bigger, faster, and stronger as well. No other program could out work Rick Tomberlin Sunday through Thursday. He put his staff and players through the mill. But he couldn't coach a lick on Friday night. If you could match up with him, you could out coach him. No contest. It's that simple. Tomberlin has an ego the size of Berlin. It was said when he left Sandersville, he had to have an extra van just to haul that over-sized head out of town. This firing won't do anything to change that because he never lets the blame fall on him.
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