Apalachee football coach opens up about depression, PTSD in wake of September shooting

“People think that PTSD is just for those who serve in the military, but it happens when tragedy comes. There’s anxiety, grief and depression.”

Hancock announced Friday via his X account (formerly called Twitter) that he was stepping down as Apalachee’s coach to focus on counseling.

Hancock said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday from his home in Monroe that he has received at least 100 texts and calls from people expressing their support, including a poignant one from Aspinwall’s wife, Shayna.

Hancock’s anxiety worsened into February, he said. He took four days off from school last month and lied to his wife about it. He told Miranda Hancock that he was going to work but stayed in bed two of the days. Miranda understood and offered only to help and support him, but Hancock called that a low moment in his life.

The turning point, Hancock said, was a text he received one Sunday last month from Jeff Segars, the athletic director at Loganville, where Hancock once coached. Segars, best known in high school sports as a baseball coach who won five state titles, went to middle school with Hancock. They’ve been friends since.

Segars’ text was a video sermon called “Sprit of Python: Snake Eggs in Your Head" by Jentezen Franklin.

“I don’t know why, but the sermon he sent encouraged me,” Hancock said. “I was still struggling and still hiding. I just heard the Holy Spirit whisper that you’ve got to get help. Don’t let this depression cripple me.”

Hancock first went to his local pastor, who recommended a Christian therapist. Hancock has met with the counselor weekly for the past three weeks. One of the most important insights he got from counseling already was that his grief extended beyond the loss of Aspinwall and the others at Apalachee.

Hancock said he didn’t realize how much he missed his father, Robert Hancock, who passed away in April.

“We were best friends,” Hancock said. “If I get emotional talking about it right now, I’m sorry. I still have that grief. I didn’t have him around to hear his voice and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’d do.’ He always called me through my coaching career. He always gave me Godly wisdom. Dealing with this and not having him just avalanched on me.”

Hancock said he got through the fall months OK because that was football season and he could focus on his players and coaches. That changed in January.

Friends have been invaluable in recent weeks, he said. Among many fellow coaches, he mentioned Johnson-Gainesville’s William Harrell, who gives him spiritual guidance, and Jefferson’s Travis Noland, who attends the same Bethlehem church as Hancock. Noland has called Hancock virtually every week since the shooting to check on him.

Hancock, in his 28th year in coaching, was promoted from defensive coordinator to Apalachee’s head coach in 2023. His first hire was Aspinwall, who was coaching in Gwinnett County.

“That was the guy I wanted around our kids because of the guy he is,” Hancock said. “Every time I think of him, I see him walking off that field after a game and grabbing those two girls (his young daughters Addison and Emery). His wife’s text to me over the weekend, saying, ‘hey, I’m here for you,’ I mean, for her to say that. I lost a friend, but she lost a husband. For her to each out was special for me and shows how strong she is. I was very appreciative of that communication.”

Hancock said his goal in posting on social media was to encourage others to get help and for coaches especially to talk about mental health.

“It’s been a relief to tell people,” he said. “Football coaches are prideful men. Coaches that struggle mentally too often times don’t want to talk about it. We don’t want to admit when we’re weak and vulnerable. I needed to let my pride down and get the help I needed.”

Hancock will continue through this academic year as a physical education instructor and plans to continue in the school system next year. He said he might go to another Barrow County school, not because he wants to leave Apalachee but because he doesn’t want to be a distraction to the new football coach, who has not been hired.

Hancock also wants to spend more time with family. Miranda Hancock is a teacher at Loganville Christian, where children Nash, 17; Brooks, 14, and Landry, 11, are students.

Hancock says that things appear almost back to normal on the outside at Apalachee, although he says people are still hurting.

The shooting took the lives of Aspinwall, fellow teacher Cristina Irimie and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both age 14. The alleged shooter, a 14-year-old, was charged with four counts of felony murder.

Since the shooting, Barrow County Schools has taken a number of steps to enhance school safety. It has hired, and is still hiring, additional school resource officers. The system has purchased AI-assisted weapons detectors and is implementing an ID system for students.

To help staff deal with the trauma of the shooting, the district is allowing full-time employees 90 minutes of leave per week to attend a therapy sessions outside of their work duties and is reimbursing staff for therapy costs. In November, at least one teacher said the leave allowance wasn’t enough.

“The Apalachee staff lost colleagues and students at their place of work, and our traumas may require more support than those at other district locations,” said Rachel Lehner, a math teacher at the high school, said at a school board meeting. “We want to be able to do our jobs and to be 100% for our students, but we also need to be able to process our trauma — without the fear of losing the (leave) time we earned before this event happened to us.”

Since then, Barrow has hired a full-time recovery coordinator to work at the school and contracted with Northeast Georgia Medical Center to hire a full-time clinician to work with staff at the school for up to three years.

In addition to changes in Barrow County, the shooting put mental health at the forefront of state lawmakers' minds. As the 2025 legislative session approaches Crossover Day, efforts to identify students who may be potential threats and to intervene early seem most likely to become law. Lawmakers are also considering other ways to expand access to counseling services for students.

Hancock said he would focus on himself, but that’s not fully his nature. He did several interviews Monday, a day he took off, with permission, for his mental health. But he wanted to talk about it, to spread the word.

“The cool thing about this is I’ve heard from several coaches, one from another state who said he’d struggled with depression,” Hancock said. “It’s not going to bring Ricky and the others back, but if my journey can help others know the love of God and Christ, then my suffering was worth it.”

- AJC education reporter Cassidy Alexander contributed to this report.