The Screven County Board of Education unanimously approved South Effingham High School's Greg Manior as SCHS's new head football coach to succeed Pat Collins.
"I think Greg Manior will be an excellent addition to the Screven County School System," said Screven County superintendent Whit Myers after the BOE's called meeting Thursday afternoon. "I am impressed with Greg as an educator and a person. He will help build a relationship within our community."
Collins has announced his resignation as SCHS football coach and athletic director, effective the end of the 2009-2010 school year. Collins will return to Southeast Bulloch High School.
If a new SCHS athletic director has not been announced before the new school year, those responsibilities will be handled by the school's administration.
"I am excited about the hire, but what is important is he is excited about the hire," said SCHS principal Brett Warren, who received 50 applications for the job opening from every state in the Southeast.
Before Warren recommended Manior to the BOE, the SCHS principal talked to 10 applicants on the telephone and then interviewed half of those.
"He is chomping at the bit to get over here and get to work," Warren said of Manior. "He knows and I know there is a lot of work to be done to get the program to where it needs to be."
SCHS finished the 2009 season at 5-5, missing the playoffs in Class AA.
"I am happy and delighted to be part of the Screven County family," said Manior, who attended the Thursday BOE meeting. "Good things lie ahead and I am anxious to get to work."
Manior said it will difficult for him to leave South Effingham because of the relationships he has formed with the staff.
"(But) I think it is time for me to move on and I can't think of a better place to be," Manior said.
Manior's wife, Janine, is a third grade teacher at South Effingham Elementary School. Janine was the Effingham County School System Teacher of the Year for the 2008-09 school year. The couple has a daughter age 13 and a son age 9.
Currently, Manior is in his fourth year as head football coach and head golf coach at South Effingham. The football coach teaches driver education and is a 1988 graduate of Effingham County High School.
Coach Manior is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he played fullback for the Wolfpack. After graduation from NC State, Manior was picked up as a free agent by the NFL's Washington Redskins, where he was on the practice squad.