Harrison coach Matt Dickmann, who led the Hoyas to their first football state title in 2019, is stepping down, not planning to coach next season or perhaps again after 34 seasons on the sidelines.
“I just felt it was time,” said Dickmann, 55. “I just don’t enjoy all the other things you have to do to be a head coach. I still enjoy time on the field and coaching kids, but 10 percent of it now is on the football field and the rest is meetings and recruiting, and it wasn’t as fun for me anymore. So I’m going to step back and enjoy more freedom and do other things.”
Dickmann was 62-30 in his eight seasons at the Kennesaw school. He was Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields’ high school coach but kept winning in Fields’ absence, going 9-3 in 2018 and then 15-0 in 2019. Harrison defeated Allatoona 20-7 in the Class 6A championship game and became the first Cobb County program to finish 15-0.
Playing in Class 7A this season, Harrison was 4-6 and defeated ninth-ranked Newnan 26-24 in the first round before losing to No. 1-ranked Grayson 30-6 in the second round.
Dickmann said he hoped that his defensive coordinator, Josh Cassidy, got his job as head coach and that he might stay on to help with strength and conditioning, a role he held earlier in his coaching career. Dickmann came to Harrison from south Florida, where he most recently had been head coach at Seminole Ridge.
“I feel that Harrison is in good shape as a football program and that our staff did a great job with it,” Dickmann said. “We won a lot of games. Maybe I’ll get bored in a year and want to coach again, but right now I feel relieved. I don’t have anything to stress me out the next month or two.”
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