On Tuesday, January 11, Dragons head coach Gene Cathcart announced he was resigning from Jefferson to take the same position at Batesburg-Leesville (SC). That left an immediate opening at Jefferson, and nearly a month later, the Dragons have filled that spot with Travis Noland.

Noland is a familiar name for most, as the long-time coach who most recently was with Oconee County, also coached at Stephens County from 2005-2013. Noland is also the President of the Georgia Football Coaches Association.

Noland carries with him a 189-89 record across 24 seasons, and has 6 region titles (3 each at Stephens and Oconee), and state title game appearances in both 2019 and 2020.

Noland’s resume as a head coach goes back to 1998, where he started at Cylde Erwin (NC). He coached there from 1998-2002, racking up 29 wins before going to Tuscola (NC). He was there from 2003-2004, and had 17 wins. In North Carolina, Noland made 5 playoff runs in those first 7 seasons.

He took the Stephens County job in 2005, and remained there until after the 2013 season. In that time, Stephens made state in all but one season, and won region titles in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The Indians made a quarterfinal run in 2005.

He then went to Oconee County, coaching from 2014-2021 there. The region championships came in 2015, 2019, and 2020, and title game runs came in 2019 and 2020. He has 7 10-win seasons under his belt, including 3 straight heading into the 2022 season. He had 73 wins at Stephens and 70 at Oconee County.

He takes over a Jefferson program that is just a year removed from a state title game run, and has one of the nation’s top prospects in 5-star recruit Sammy Brown.