Decision to leave West Laurens all about faith for Nobles

When Von Lassiter left Houston County’s program to take over at Bleckley County and become the athletics director, it raised eyebrows. They’re raised again.

The approval at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting of Stacy Nobles as a teacher and coach was almost as out of left field as Lassiter’s decision, and both coaches know it.

But both also say these two career moves aren’t about football, classifications, locations, being in charge or career moves.

“One thing you’ve got to understand with us is, first of all, we’re Christian coaches,” Lassiter said. “We’re going to follow God’s plan for our lives. Double-A, 5A, 6A, that stuff don’t matter to us. Stacy and I are a lot alike. That stuff don’t matter.

“We want to be where God wants us to be.”

Nobles, who was head coach at West Laurens for six seasons, said he has spent the past three weeks praying and fasting about the decision.

“I’m a follower of Christ, and I try to be fully submissive to what He wants me to do,” said Nobles, a Trinity Christian graduate who has coached at Villa Rica, West Laurens and Bleckley County since graduating from Liberty and taking over at West Laurens. “He blessed me tremendously at West Laurens. It was just something that with a lot of prayer, about three weeks worth, praying and fasting, and seeking God’s guidance, I just got an amazing peace from the Holy Spirit about it that this is what I’m supposed to do.”

The two coaches are now in a similar yet opposite situation of who works for who.

Lassiter was Nobles’ defensive coordinator at West Laurens for one season before Lassiter left to take over at Houston County. The two worked together at Bleckley County before Nobles took over at West Laurens.

“We’ve joked about that,” Lassiter said. “It’s been kinda fun. I’ve got the last one, hopefully. Hopefully, we’ll grow old together here.”

The board also approved the hiring of Randall Owens. Owens has been a football assistant coach and girls basketball head coach at Baldwin for several years, following stints at Harris County, Twiggs County and Perry. He coached with Macon County football head coach Dexter Copeland at Twiggs County and Baldwin.

Last month, the board approved the hiring of Sean Patrick. Patrick was the Houston County offensive coordinator and an offensive line coach last year. Patrick has also been at Lincoln County, Thomson, West Laurens and ECI.

Nobles was 37-30 in six seasons at West Laurens, going 24-13 the past three seasons after starting out 13-17. The Raiders won a playoff game the past two seasons and reached the quarterfinals in 2014, the year they won the program’s second region title.

The Raiders went 7-5 in 2016, 3-2 in GHSA Region 2-4A, tying with Spalding and Upson-Lee but getting the second seed in the playoffs. They beat Luella 35-14 and lost 21-0 at Jefferson, which lost in the semifinals.

Nobles shared the second-longest career at West Laurens, six years, with Berry Walton (38-28, 1987-1992), Cardon Dalley (26-35-1, 1981-1986) and Tom Wilson (14-45-1, 1975-1980). Tim Dixon went 37-49 in eight seasons, 1993-2000. West Laurens had five coaches between Dixon and Nobles.

The Raiders have some rebuilding to do on offense, losing most of the starters, but should be respectable on defense with returnees like noseguard Abram Morrow and linebackers Doryan Gorham and Ben Deal.

“It’s bittersweet; the selfish side of me doesn’t want to turn away from what we’ve done here and how our kids worked,” said Nobles, 39. “It’s amazing. I love these kids, and I love Friday nights here at ‘The Shu.’ The human side of me definitely didn’t want to let that go, because man, our kids, they worked harder than any I’ve ever been around.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Decision to leave West Laurens all about faith for Nobles."