MOULTRIE – Former Colquitt County High athlete and coach Darrell Funderburk will become the school’s athletic director on January 19.

Funderburk is currently an assistant principal at the high school and will essentially be trading responsibilities with current AD Greg Tillery, who will assume Funderburk’s duties.

Tillery has been the school’s athletic director since February 2016, when he succeeded Kevin Giddens, and was named the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s Region 1-7A AD of the year for 2017-2018.

He had approached Colquitt County Principal Jamie Dixon last summer about stepping away from the athletic director job to take on an assistant principal role.

Dixon said he would grant the request, but did ask that Tillery stay on through the 2020 football season and deal with the problems associated with the spread of the coronavirus, which he did.

And when Funderburk said he would be amenable to taking on the role of running the athletic department, the swap was made.

In Funderburk, Dixon has a person with more than two decades of administrative experience at the high school and close ties to the athletic department at his alma mater.

Dixon also said he wanted to head off any rumors by stressing that he is not firing Tillery.

“He has been very loyal and has done a good job,” Dixon said. “He has been very loyal to Colquitt County High School.”

Funderburk, whose entire professional career has been at the high school, will work closely with Tillery over the next 10 days to prepare for assuming the AD duties.

He has been an assistant principal at Colquitt County since 2000 after serving many years as a coach.

An All-Region quarterback for the Packers in 1984, Funderburk played at Valdosta State before returning to Colquitt County as a football coach.

He went on to become the Packers offensive coordinator and was on the staff that led Colquitt County to a 15-0 record and a state championship in 1994.

He also helped develop such Packer quarterbacks as Clif Henry and Reggie Stancil.

Funderburk retired from coaching after the 1999 football season to concentrate on administrative duties, but remained close to athletics at Colquitt County, especially while his daughter Elizabeth, now an outstanding runner at Florida State, was performing for the cross country, track and golf teams.

And with Elizabeth now competing at the college level, “I have the time to devote to this.

“And I’ve never been far away from athletics at Colquitt County.”

Funderburk acknowledged that dealing with the effects on COVID-19 on athletics will take center stage, but that “We’ll work through it and hopefully get it behind us. I think our operation has been sound, everything is in place for us to be successful and we will continue to trend in that direction.

“I’m looking forward to this opportunity. There are a lot of great people here.”

He said he expects the job will not be exceedingly different from what he has been doing throughout his career and, he noted, he served as the school’s assistant athletic director in 1998 and 1999 under Jim Hughes before becoming an assistant principal.

His successes as a player and as a coach led to Funderburk being inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

Funderburk characterized his relationship with Tillery as “great.”

Tillery played football and baseball at Colquitt County and went to Georgia Southwestern, where he was a catcher on the baseball team.

After several years in private business, he returned to his alma mater and coached football for 14 seasons, including six years of working with the varsity football team’s defensive linemen.

He resigned after the 2013 football season to concentrate on administrative duties.

Tillery also coached baseball and wrestling at Colquitt County.

The Colquitt County athletic director oversees a department that includes cheerleading, boys and girls cross country, football, softball, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, rifle, boys and girls swimming, diving, baseball, boys and girls golf, gymnastics, and boys and girls soccer, tennis and track programs.