MOULTRIE – When new Colquitt County head football coach Sean Calhoun attends a “meet-and-greet”  scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday at the high school cafeteria, he will meet plenty of old friends, acquaintances and fans who will remember him from his highly successful term as a Packers assistant in 2014-2015.

Calhoun, who was named last week to replace Justin Rogers, who has gone to take over the Thomas County Central program, was instrumental in running Rush Propst’s offense when the Packers went a combined 30-0 and won a pair of state championships.

In 2014, when he arrived in Moultrie to be the program’s passing game coordinator, the Packers ran up 687 points.

The following season, Colquitt again ran the table and put up an even 700 points.

Calhoun said that at that time he wanted to be a head coach and the two seasons in Moultrie prepared him for it.

“It was such an honor to be part of that,” he said.

He left in 2016 for a five-year tenure at Carrollton, where he went 52-11, won two region championships and reached the state quarterfinals each year.

 Carrollton went 33-6 in region games during Calhoun’s tenure and won the Region 7-5A title in 2019 and the Region 5-6A championship in 2020.

Calhoun was named the region Coach of the Year both of those years.The Trojans averaged 36.5 points a game from 2016-2020.

Last year, he went to Vestavia Hills in Alabama.The Rebels played in what Calhoun characterized as the toughest region in the state’s highest classification.

“Obviously, I can’t get away from elite competition,” Calhoun said. “It’s a challenge. But that is what you want. You want to know how good a coach you are.”

And while he said he and his wife Kellie made abiding friendships in both Carrollton and Vestavia Hills, he was receptive when contacted by Colquitt County officials about their coaching vacancy.

He sounded pleased to be headed back to Moultrie and to Georgia.

“It’s been a winding road,” he said Friday at the high school between interviews with members of the current coaching staff. “I never saw this coming. But you never know where the Lord is going to take you.

“Colquitt County always has had a place in my heart. Even when I was in Carrollton, I promise you, I knew the Packers score.”

Calhoun played at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, where he led the Patriots to two victories over crosstown rival Parkview.

He went on to Valdosta State, where he was part of two national championship teams, first as a player and later as an assistant coach.

Calhoun had been an offensive assistant at Collins Hill when Propst brought him back to south Georgia.

Calhoun will remain at Vestavia Hills for the rest of January, then will begin in earnest preparing for the 2022 season.

The Packers were 26-7 the last three seasons under Rogers, including a 9-1 record in the 2020 COVID-19 wracked season, and 8-3 last fall, when Colquitt took an uncustomary first-round exit from the Class 7A playoffs.

“The team did some good things last year and I want to build on that,” Calhoun said. “It’s a matter of implementing what I do and what is best for the program, both on and off the football field.”

Calhoun said his priorities now are to get to know the players, meet the people in the community and build his staff.

One member of Rogers’s staff, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joe Thornton, has left to follow his former boss to Thomas County Central.

Others are familiar to Calhoun, including receivers coach John Cooper, who was on the Carrollton staff until returning to Moultrie last season.

Dextra Polite is a holdover from the 2014-2015 seasons, as are athletic trainer Ryan Kebler and director of football operations Earl Jefferson.

Calhoun said he will be methodical in building his first Packers staff.

“I want to get it right,” he said. “I want to see what we have in house. There are some quality coaches here.

“I think it’s going to be the perfect blend of guys I bring in and guys already on the staff.”

And while Calhoun is unabashedly an offensive-minded coach, he knows the value of stout defenses.

“Offenses are getting more and more advanced, so it’s hard to play defense,” Calhoun said. “But our kids are going to know what to do. They are going to play fast and they are going to play focused.

“We are going to get after it.”

Colquitt County High School administration sounds as it believes it has hired the right man to keep the program among the elite in Georgia.

“We look forward to the standard of excellence that Coach Calhoun will bring to our program,” Colquitt County High Principal Daniel Chappuis said.

Colquitt County Athletic Director Darrell Funderburk called Calhoun “a proven leader on and off the field.

“He’s a great fit and his experience and talent as a coach will be vital to the Packer football program for years to come. For us to be successful, our community needs to rally around the leadership of our program and our head coach. And I’m confident the community will.”

Calhoun and his wife Kellie have three children, son Cade, 11; daughter Cora Mae, 10; and daughter Cambry Jo, 7.

They should be in Moultrie by the middle of February, Calhoun said.

By then, the 20th Packers head coach should have a better idea of his team’s prospects for 2022 and beyond.

“This is a place that always has talent and I think this year will be no different,” Calhoun said. “To win championships, you have to have some really, really good football players.

“I think we have some here.”