Mike Chastain named Warner Robins' head coach

As a player at Northside and West Georgia, and an assistant coach at a variety of high schools, Mike Chastain was constantly around successful coaches.

He played for Stan Gann and coached under Conrad Nix at Northside.

His head coach at West Georgia, Charlie Fisher, recently was named the head coach at Western Illinois and has several Power 5 conference stops on his resume.

As an assistant coach, Chastain has been alongside new Valdosta head coach Alan Rodemaker, Georgia Southern assistant Rance Gillespie, Peach County’s Chad Campbell and Lee County’s Dean Fabrizio as well as Veterans’ David Bruce and retired coach Sam Barrs, not to mention Houston County’s Von Lassiter.

Now, Chastain gets the chance to establish his own coaching tree after being named the head coach at Warner Robins on Tuesday.

“I’m just so excited,” Chastain said amid the flurry of duties overwhelming a just-hired head coach and athletics director. “I’m ready to go.”

There was no public debate or discussion Tuesday when the Houston County Board of Education approved him to take over as the head coach and athletics director at Warner Robins.

Reportedly, there were about two dozen official applicants to succeed Bryan Way, and that field was cut to just less than a dozen for interviews.

The three finalists were re-interviewed Monday, with board discussion Monday night.

“I’m excited about what Mike Chastain brings to Warner Robins,” superintendent Mark Scott said after the meeting. “He’s well thought of in the community as far as his children and that kind of stuff.

“And we are proud that Mike’s a graduate of the system. I think he brings a lot of energy and motivation to Warner Robins.”

It was a good day at the board meeting for the Chastain clan.

Carrie Chastian was on hand as the Veterans teacher of the year, the board celebrating several other such honorees.

That was the second reason Mike Chastain was in a football office at Houston County watching the meeting online. It was during the motion for the vote and ensuing vote to approve him that he watched his future change.

The announcement came a few minutes after 2 p.m. Chastain then started setting up meetings with Warner Robins assistants and squeezed in a quick meal with his wife.

“I’ve lived in this town all of my life except for the (five) years I was off to college,” Chastain said. “I had several Warner Robins friends growing up. All my friends growing up from Warner Robins, from Northside, all my Houston County people, everybody’s just been congratulating me.

“It’s been awesome. Warner Robins people I don’t even know have been texting me. It’s been good stuff.”

Chastain’s hiring won’t be completely without consternation within a faction of the Warner Robins faithful because he’s a Northside graduate. It’s almost as bad as a Hatfield getting hitched with a McCoy.

But now he’s the Warner Robins head coach, something he hopes lasts longer than the four years of he was a student at Northside, he said. He noted having coached against Northside teams about 20 times on the varsity level and lower levels. Of course, the intensity is now mighty different.

“We’re going to work on beating Northside,” he said.

A commitment to the city and county is a reason Houston County head coach Von Lassiter, who coached with Chastain at Northside and hired him immediately upon taking over the Bears at the start of 2013, predicts success.

“Mike’s real passionate about this county,” Lassiter said. “He’s from here, he cares about the people in this community, he’s passionate about his church. Mike wants to live in Houston County for a long time.”

Chastain, who turned 40 two days after the Warner Robins job became open, has spent the past three years as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Houston County and been an integral figure in the Bears’ 28-9 record in that span.

No doubt the Bears’ aggressive and diversified offense, run by Alabama commitment Jake Fromm at quarterback, made Chastain an attractive candidate for Warner Robins.

Chastain and Fromm started working together immediately after Chastain joined the staff.

“We’re very close,” Chastain said. “I’ve spent more time with that guy than I have with any other coach on staff or player over there. Since day one when we got to Houston County, the first day of the second semester of his eighth-grade year.”

Chastain becomes the third football head coach in the county to play at and graduate from West Georgia, joining Veterans’ David Bruce and Northside’s Kevin Kinsler.

Chastain was an offensive lineman, and he was exposed to an array of football ideas at West Georgia.

Fisher has coached at Richmond, Penn State, Vanderbilt and N.C. State. Glenn Spencer was an assistant and then head coach at West Georgia while Chastain was still on campus, and Spencer is now the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State. New South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp was an assistant with the Wolves for a season. Former Valdosta State head coach and two-time Division II national champ David Dean, now a co-offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern, was an assistant at West Georgia and went 70-24 as Valdosta State’s head coach.

Chastain spent a year at Houston County as a community coach under Doug Johnson, then had stops at Byron Middle School as that program’s first head coach, Northside, Bleckley County, Peach County, Lee County and Veterans.

Since 2007, he has been a quarterbacks coach and/or offensive coordinator, having coached tight ends and tackles at Northside while also coaching the ninth-grade program.

Nix has had the biggest impact.

“Coach Nix really taught me how to coach and do it the right way, the Christian way, do it the way that honors God in all that we do,” Chastain said. “And as far as making a difference in kids’ lives. But I don’t want to say just Coach Nix. I think the reason why I’m (here) is how much I’ve learned from all those stops. I’ve been very, very blessed, very fortunate to be around several good coaches.

“I ain’t kidding you, I’ve learned stuff from every one. I’ve been blessed.”

Mike Chastain’s career

1993-94 Graduated, Northside

1994-98 West Georgia

1998-99 West Georgia, student assistant

1999-00 Houston County, community coach

2000-2002 Peach County, Byron Middle School head coach

2002-05 Northside, 9th grade head coach, varsity tight ends and tackles

2005-07 Bleckley County, strength and conditioning, offensive line

2007-09 Peach County, quarterbacks, strength and conditioning

2009-11 Lee County, offensive coordinator

2011-13 Veterans, quarterbacks

2013-16 Houston County, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks, running backs

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Mike Chastain named Warner Robins' head coach."