Rutland’s George Collins announces plans to retire

Rutland athletics director and football head coach George Collins found a unique way Monday night to make public a long-held plan of his.

Speaking at the Macon Touchdown Club’s weekly meeting, Collins brought up the dinner served by The Methodist Home, a meal that featured fried whiting.

“This time next year,” Collins said, mentioning the food choice was appropriate for the week he was to speak to the club as part of its featured high school team program, “I’m going to be fishing,”

Collins, who played professional football before going into the coaching profession, will hang up his whistle at the end of the season after eight years with Rutland. The 59-year-old Collins spent five seasons in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals an offensive lineman.

Collins said plans for his retirement have been in the works for some time.

“Our new principal (Kent Sparks) has been real good with me,” Collins said. “I told him last year that my plan was to be (at Rutland) for two more years.”

Collins is 44-104 as a high school head coach, including 23-55 at Rutland. The Hurricanes are 1-6 this season.

In addition to his tenure at Rutland, Collins was the head coach at Perry from 1995 to 2000, going 20-40, and he was the head coach at Houston County in 2007, going 1-9.

“George is well respected among all the coaches,” Bibb County athletics director Eddie Ashley said. “He’s a great athletics director, supports every team at Rutland. He has been an asset as a person.

“I know the season has been tough this year, but George is a man you want your children to grow up to be like.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 9:10 PM with the headline "Rutland’s George Collins announces plans to retire ."