Harvey Simpson / Cordele Dispatch
CORDELE — When Robert Cotton was hired as Crisp County’s boys basketball coach last spring, he observed that hoop talent was in the Cougars’ program and his goal was to get the best out of it.
He had plans of taking his players to all the team and individual camps they could possibly attend this summer. He also hoped to restore the program to an elite status of being in the 10 in the state and have at least one player move on to Division I college basketball.
But that won’t happen as Cotton is apparently unwanted — a fact that he chose to make public in Friday’s issue of the Albany Herald.
As was the case many times during the basketball season when he did not return or initiate calls concerning game results, Cotton did not heed a request from this newspaper for comment on the situation.
Not long after his Cougars had wrapped up a 14-16 season highlighted by wins over Final Four qualifier Westover and a season-ending eight-point loss to defending AAA state champion South Atlanta, Cotton said he was told he wasn’t being rehired.
The 20-year coaching veteran said new Crisp County athletics director Sean Pender informed him of that decision last week.
“I said I wanted to know what I’d done wrong, what I needed to improve or change to be a better coach going forward and for me to be the one to tell the kids — no one else,” Cotton told The Herald. “He just said they were going in another direction.”
Reached by long distance Saturday in Atlanta where he was playing a round of golf with friends, Pender said he made the decision to not retain Cotton after talking with principal Toriano Gilbert, superintendent Jay Brinson and several others “about all the coaches that were on staff.”
“The decision, which was not all about wins and losses, was made earlier for his (Cotton’s) benefit instead of later as this will make it easier for him to find a good job,” said Pender.
An alternative education teacher as well as the head of the boys basketball program, Cotton said his players were upset when they learned he wouldn’t be returning.
“They were boo-hooing, but I told them to keep their heads up, stay together and stay humble,” Cotton was quoted. “The last thing I told my team is that I needed them to do something for me. I told them we started something here, and now I need you to go out and finish it.”
In characterizing his situation that may or may not be the end to his coaching career that includes previous head coaching stops at Manchester for six years and at Americus-Sumter where his four-year won-loss record was 63-44, Cotton said, “It’s strange.
“This has really left a bad taste in my mouth and I kind of just feel like it’s time to stop coaching and just retire. I really don’t have any hard feelings toward Crisp. They gave me an opportunity.
“But as a coach (of young kids), you sacrifice a lot over the years to make a difference in their lives and your program. You give up your summers, Christmas, Thanksgiving — I’ve been doing this 20 years. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices for basketball and it’s because I love it so much.”
Pender, meanwhile, revealed that Terry Smith, who served for eight years as an assistant to the highly-successful E.B. Price at Ware County before later moving on to East Laurens, will be Cotton’s successor.
This will be Smith’s first head coaching stint.
