Veterans makes staff changes in basketball, football

Chris Kothe is out and Nick Brooks is in as boys basketball head coach at Veterans.

Kothe was released from the job not long after the Warhawks' 3-23 season ended in February with an 83-50 loss to Mary Persons in the GHSA Region 2-AAAA tournament.

Kothe took over for Greg Nix, the Warhawks head coach for the program's first two seasons, in the summer of 2012 and had two winning seasons followed by two losing seasons.

According to Maxpreps.com, the Warhawks went 47-59 under Kothe, who had been an assistant at Perry before taking the Veterans job.

Brooks comes to Veterans from Warner Robins, where he has been an assistant football and basketball coach since 2009.

This will be his first varsity head coach job, but he has been part of the Demons' recent surge to a spot among the Class AAAAA state contenders. Warner Robins reached the championship game in 2014 and semifinals in 2015.

Veterans and Warner Robins are, sort of, trading coaches.

Brooks will also be part of the football staff, which had an opening with the move of Marquis Westbrook to Warner Robins.

"We're both trading one Gator for another Gator,' Veterans athletics director and football head coach David Bruce said. "It kind of all happened together. (Brooks) filled two needs for us."

Brooks, a Northside graduate, was a freshman at Florida in 2002, which was the senior season for Westbrook, a Crisp County graduate.

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Veterans makes staff changes in basketball, football ."