MOULTRIE — After six years as the athletic director at his high school alma mater, Cleve Edwards has taken a similar job at a school just 25 miles from home.

Edwards, who was the AD at Cook High School the last six years, has been named to oversee the athletic department at Colquitt County High.

Edwards will succeed Darrell Funderburk, who stepped down as the Colquitt County AD in March.

Funderburk has not gone far, however, and will work half-time in the athletic department helping out Edwards and middle school AD Chance Pitts.

Pitts served as the interim until Edwards was approved by the school board on May 23.

“Kudos to Chance Pitts for handling things by himself for a couple of months, finishing off the spring,” Funderburk said. “He had a lot on him and did a good job for Colquitt County.”

Edwards, who played baseball at Cook before graduating in 2000 and then was named the Hornets head coach in 2011, has long been familiar with the Colquitt County program.

Ironically, he was hired as Cook’s baseball coach and, in 2015, as its athletic director by former Cook principal Keith Croft, a former Packer baseball player and coach.

“Colquitt County has had things going in the right direction for a long time,” Edwards said on Thursday.

“The community buy-in here is great and I feel fortunate to be able to step in and take on this role.”

Edwards played baseball at Cook under coach Frank Vashaw. The Hornets reached the Final Four each season and won the Class AA state championship in 2000.

He then played baseball at Darton for two seasons.

In 2003, he returned to Adel, where he coached on the football, wrestling and baseball teams until being named head baseball coach in 2011.

His first Hornets team went 22-8 record and his 2014 team won 24 games, reached the Elite Eight and finished ranked No. 7 in Class AA.

He gave up the head coaching position after the 2015 season after posting a 98-57 record to become athletic director.

“We were successful all across the board,” Edwards said of his six-year tenure as the Cook AD.

Edwards will take over an athletic department that oversees 17 high school varsity sports.

Funderburk said Colquitt County has some 62 teams reaching down to some sixth-grade programs.

Funderburk said the goal of the athletic department is to have teams to be in position to win region titles in every sport.

“We’ve got a lot of good things going on that we want to continue,” Funderburk said.

Edwards takes over in a time of some change.

The high school program will have four new head coaches beginning this fall.

Sean Calhoun is preparing his first Colquitt County football team for its Aug. 20 opener against Deerfield Beach, Fla., in the Georgia-Florida Challenge at Lowndes; Andy Harden has returned for a second stint as the Packers’ boys basketball coach; former Packer Colby Simpson has taken the reins of the girls soccer program; and recent Kennesaw State graduate Jess Cohen is taking over the Lady Packers volleyball team.

After the recent Georgia High School Association reclassification, Colquitt County also will play in a revised Region 1-7A beginning this year, with Tift County dropping down to play in Class 6A, Valdosta rejoining after several years in Class 6A and Richmond Hill, some 200 miles to the east, joining the only  region in South Georgia in the largest classification.

Lowndes and Camden County also will remain in the region.

Valdosta will not be a mystery with most of Colquitt County sports having continued to play the Wildcats in recent years.

Richmond Hill, one of three groups of Wildcats now playing in Region 1-7A, will be new to the schedules of all Colquitt County teams.

“It will be a new experience,” Edwards said. “Richmond Hill has a very competitive program.”

Edwards has seen the GHSA’s unenviable reclassification process up close as a member of the organization’s executive committee the last five years.

“It’s an eye-opening experience to see how that process works,” he said. “The general public doesn’t understand what goes into that.”

Edwards said he is ready for the challenge, which begins with a busy summer leading up to the 2022-2023 school year.

He and wife Allison have two children: 11-year-old son Jake and 9-year-old daughter Lilli.

“I’m a South Georgia boy; I’ve got South Georgia ties,” Edwards said. “I didn’t want to get too far away from home. I’m looking forward to this.”