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March 25, 2008

McClurg resigns

Winegarden named replacement

Marty Kirkland

Dalton High football’s program has experienced a rare change at the top.

Ronnie McClurg, the Catamounts football coach and athletic director since 2001, formally resigned from his football post on Monday, handing the team’s reins to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Adam Winegarden at the same time.

McClurg will remain on staff as the school’s athletic director.

Winegarden was approved as football coach — he will be only the fifth at Dalton over the past 60 years — during a special called meeting of the Dalton Public Schools Board of Education on Monday afternoon.

“Nobody can coach forever,” said McClurg, who will turn 68 on April 11. “That’s for sure. It was time to turn it over to a younger person.”

McClurg said his health is good, but that the long hours of football season — he estimated five to six 12-to-14-hour days a week during those months — were tiring and had begun to test his energy level.

A longtime assistant under former Cats coach Bill Chappell, McClurg came to Dalton High in 1964 and served as an offensive line coach and defensive coordinator before leaving coaching once before in 1994; he was also the school’s track coach for 25 years. He worked in sales at Carpets of Dalton before returning to the coaching ranks in 2001, when he led the Cats to the Class 4A title game.

Dalton was 63-17 in McClurg’s seven seasons, including a run to the Region 7-4A title in 2007.

“I’ve enjoyed it every day,” said McClurg, who said he began seriously considering retiring after the conclusion of last season. “I’ve always said that I don’t feel like I worked a day in my life because I enjoyed my job so much. As I stated to someone else, I hope that the person who takes over my job enjoys it as much as I did.”

McClurg believes Winegarden is that person; he made him the first and only choice as his successor, a decision McClurg said was fully supported by Dalton High principal Debbie Freeman and Dalton Public Schools superintendent Orval Porter.

Winegarden, a 30-year-old University of Tennessee-Chattanooga graduate — he lettered as a quarterback for the Mocs — took over as offensive coordinator at Dalton in 2003 after three seasons working with the team’s quarterbacks. A special education teacher at the school, Winegarden will continue to call plays and work with quarterbacks as head coach.

“It’s a great honor to be the head coach at Dalton High School,” Winegarden said. “Dalton has a tradition known throughout the state and throughout the nation. In the past 60 years, there’s only been four coaches — to be the fifth one is a great honor and it’s something I don’t take lightly.”

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