A Colquitt County athletic standout, who later served as a teacher, coach and administrator here, has been chosen to lead Oconee County High School in Watkinsville, Ga.

The Oconee County Board of Education voted in a special session on Friday to hire Ben Wiggins as principal of Oconee County High School. Wiggins will replace Sheila Beckham, who is retiring at the conclusion of this school year, and will begin his new duties no later than July 1.

Wiggins, most recently the principal at Pelham High School, graduated from Colquitt County High in 1989, received degrees from Samford University and Montevallo University, both in Alabama, and returned to CCHS in 1996 as a teacher and coach. He rose to be assistant principal before taking the job at Pelham High. Along the way, he picked up a specialist degree from Albany State University.

While a student at CCHS, Wiggins starred as the Packers quarterback his junior and senior years, adding up 1,788 yards and 14 touchdowns before attracting the attention of Samford’s coaches, including then-head-coach Terry Bowden.

With a football scholarship in hand, he joined the Bulldogs. His first two seasons, the young team was still finding its way, but when Wiggins became a junior he also became the lead quarterback — and took the Bulldogs to a 12-2 record. He followed that up with a 9-3 record his senior year.

Wiggins was inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the same year he took the reins at Pelham High.

He and his wife Jana — whom he met while they were both students at Samford — still live in Moultrie, where they attend Heritage Church. They have two children, Leah Grace, a rising 10th grader, and her older brother, Blake.

The move to Oconee High will be very convenient for Wiggins’ family. Watkinsville is only about 7 1/2 miles from the University of Georgia, where Blake is a junior.