Putnam County head football coach Shaun Pope announced his retirement from coaching on Monday.
He informed the Eatonton Messenger of his plans only a few hours after letting his players and staff know the news.
“I told them for the last eight or nine months that I have been contemplating it,” Pope said, “My wife and I have been praying and discussing it. I’m the kind of guy who if I can’t give something my whole heart and mind, then I will just not do it. I was getting to the point where I didn’t feel like I was giving our kids and coaching staff everything that I could. It’s just also that my time is valuable. I am 50 years old and I have two small children. I just want to spend time with them. I also have two older kids that I missed out on a larger part of their lives. The Lord has blessed me with a seven-year-old and a three-year-old now, so I want to be a husband and father.”
Pope has spent the last seven seasons at Putnam County, with five being the head coach. He started out as an assistant under former head coach Kyle Gourley but took over in 2018 at the helm. The program struggled in Pope’s first season with a 3-7 record. However, he quickly turned things around the next year. The War Eagles went 5-6 in 2019 and made it to the Class 2A state playoffs.
Putnam County then went 9-2 in 2020 with another playoff berth. The War Eagles hadn’t won that many games since 2010, although the next season would elevate them to new heights under Pope. In 2021, Putnam County went 12-1 overall and won a region championship. The previous time the program won a dozen games was in 1996 when the legendary Al Reaves roamed the sidelines in Eatonton.
Pope led the War Eagles to their first region title in 2021 for the first time since 1992. They also made a deep playoff run but it came to an end in the Elite Eight against eventual state champion Fitzgerald.
Putnam County went 9-3 overall in 2022 and entered the state playoffs as a No. 2 seed. The War Eagles then reached the second round of the Class 2A state playoffs before losing to Fitzgerald again.
“I am retiring from just coaching football. I still have four more years of teaching left,” Pope explained. “I plan to stay in Putnam and am not going elsewhere. What my day job is going to look like moving forward, we’re going to work all that out, but as far as coaching, I am retiring.”
Pope spent seven seasons as a head coach with a 42-35 overall record. Before arriving at Putnam County, he was the head coach at Montgomery County (2006) and Chattahoochee County (2010). Pope also served as an assistant coach at Wheeler County, Claxton, East Laurens, Toombs County and Ware County.
The War Eagles are in a better place than when he arrived, which was a goal of Pope’s before he retired. He helped a good majority of Putnam County’s senior class from last season sign scholarships to play at the next level. Pope also takes pride in and knows what it means to be a War Eagle.
“It’s just time. I’ve been very fortunate and been very blessed,” Pope said. “When I took the job, the administration stepped in. Dr. [Buford] Kellogg was the principal at the time and walked in and asked me what I needed. I told him we had to get all the kids in weight training and he made that happen. Mr. [Eric] Arena and Mr. [Derick] Austin with the Board of Education have also been phenomenal. You can look around and see the commitment they put in, not just in football, but with athletics across the board.
"All of the administration has been tremendous with bringing in coaches and just doing the things that needed to be done. It’s been teamwork. There’s been a lot of people that have poured in a lot of hours and hard work into getting this program into what it is now. I think that we’re just now getting to the tip of the iceberg. We’re not at the top yet. I think we’re just now starting to get there. I think someone can take it, move it forward, and continue to grow it to be one of the top programs in the state. I am very grateful and blessed to be a small part of it.”