On Thursday, former Baldwin football head coach Jesse Hicks was approved as the head coach at Central.

Finally.

For years, I’ve thought Hicks would be a perfect fit to run a football program in Macon. On Thursday, the Chargers got their lead piece of the puzzle with Hicks taking over, and it’s an absolutely great hire.

First off, he’s a terrific football coach, and the numbers prove it.

Hicks won 70 games in eight years at Baldwin, leading the Braves to their first ever state semifinals appearance in 2005. Baldwin had three 10-win seasons under Hicks, and it won two region championships, the first region championships for the program in more than 20 years.

The past two years, Hicks served as the head coach at Dougherty, with his teams there going 3-17. But he walked into an absolute mess in Albany, and that doesn’t take away from what he did at Baldwin. And it doesn’t diminish what he will do with the Chargers.

Central typically has had plenty of talent, but that hasn’t added up to many wins in the past few years. The Chargers have just one winning season and one playoff appearance since 1998.

Hicks will turn that around. He gets the best out of the talent he has on his roster, and he will do the same at Central.

But more importantly, Hicks will fit in with the school and the community. He is one of the real good people in coaching in our state and is genuine in his concern for his players and his excitement to do whatever he can to help them.

Again, the numbers back that up. Hicks had more than 30 players sign college football scholarships during his time in Milledgeville. He works his connections to land those opportunities for his players and helps get them chances to play on the next level.

It might seem like that should be a part of any coach’s job description. But there are some coaches who don’t make those things happen. They coach the players while they’re on the roster, but they don’t look out for those young men in the long term and make sure they have opportunities beyond high school.

Hicks does all of the good things off the field any school would want out of its head coach, and he wins games while doing them.

That makes him the perfect fit for Central and for Macon, even if it took way too long for it to happen.

Contact Daniel Shirley at 744-4227 or dshirley@macon.com