Friday marked a new day for Columbia Academy football, as the school introduced Joey Hawkins as the program’s 20th head football coach.
Hawkins, a former four-time state champion as Jackson Academy’s head coach in the mid-2000s, didn’t come to CA alone. Two new members of the Cougars’ coaching staff include the well-traveled Mark McHale and former state champion Nevil Barr, who is best known for turning Oak Grove into the powerhouse it is today.
Barr, a 2018 inductee of the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame, amassed a 145-40 record in his 14 years at Oak Grove, which had never reached the playoffs prior to his tenure. He spent 12 years as Petal’s head coach before joining the Warriors, and he spent two seasons leading Sumrall before that. Hawkins said Barr won’t be a full-time coach, but he’ll “be here a lot.”
McHale has seen it all in the coaching world, including stops at Southern Miss, Florida State, Marshall, Louisville, South Carolina, the Canadian Football League and the World Football League. He’s coached under Bobby Bowden, Jim Carmody and Jeff Bower, and he coached the likes of Randy Moss at Marshall and Brett Favre at Southern Miss, who he had a hand in recruiting. Hawkins said McHale will be a full-time member of the CA staff, calling him “one of the best offensive line coaches of all time.”
“It’s incredible,” Hawkins said of his new staff. “We’ve got Brad Duncan, just a really good staff. Coach (Keith) Stanley’s been incredible (and) coach (Dylan) Rhodes. We’ve got a great staff, so we want to take each day and build from there.”
Hawkins retired from Presbyterian Christian School following the 2017 after a 37-year coaching career that included stops at Pillow Academy, Jackson Academy, Woodland Hills Academy and Indianola Academy, his alma mater. Hawkins’ Jackson Academy football teams won the state title in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. He also won 11-straight state championships as the team’s track coach, though he will strictly coach football at CA.
The new CA coach was initially helping with the school’s coaching search following the dismissal of TC Chambliss, as Hawkins had served as a consultant for numerous schools to keep busy following his retirement. As the search went on, Hawkins realized that the best man for the job was staring back at him in the mirror.
“When (CA) called me – I was trying to maybe help them find the right guy – after we’ve gotten through a couple negotiations, it turned and pivoted. Every time I’d tell someone (about it), they’d (say), ‘Well, you could do that,’” Hawkins said. “It kept getting more and more powerful until I finally told my wife, ‘If God doesn’t shut this door, I’m going to go through it.’
“Their administration was so graceful. I can’t say enough about Angie Burkett and the administration. The board was awesome, and everything just fit perfectly. I said, ‘It’s time to grab my whistle and hat again – let’s go.’”
“This is a turning point in Columbia Academy’s football program, and we’re very excited,” Scott Williamson, the chairman of CA’s athletic board, said at the opening of the ceremony Friday. “We were trying to do everything we could to bring back a winning program here at Columbia Academy. We want to restore what we’re used to here, and I think we’re well on the way of making that happen.”
Hawkins inherits a young, talented Cougar football team that only had one senior starter in 2023. When Hawkins met with the team Friday morning ahead of his introductory press conference, he said he knew the team was hungry and ready to win.
“They want to do something special. When you’ve got that, with our staff and the people we’ve got, we’re going to try to get there in a hurry,” he said. “We’ve got most everybody back that played, so that’s a good sign. We’ve got a lot of young guys – the sophomore class is really, really good. We just need more people. We’ve got to get some more depth. We want everybody to play football. We want people to put on a helmet and come help us at Columbia Academy.”
The main goal Hawkins wants to accomplish quickly is to bring the excitement back to CA’s campus. He said it’s not impossible, and he pointed to a school right down the road as a program to strive to be like.
“Columbia Academy’s been around 54-55 years. You’ve had tremendous people here and a lot of great supporters in town. Columbia High School has done a great job with Chip (Bilderback), but we want to tell them, ‘Hey, this is a great place to play,’” Hawkins explained. “We just need to get the momentum back and get everything where we want it. We’re going to do that in a short time.”
