You could say there’s a connection between the football programs at the University of Georgia and nearby Clarke Central High School—and it goes far beyond the fact that both are located in the city of Athens.

Beginning this football season, six former Georgia players are serving as assistant coaches for the Clarke Central Gladiators. Representing more than half the coaching staff, the half-dozen Bulldogs, all of whom played during the head-coaching tenures of Jim Donnan and Mark Richt (1996-2015), are helping rebuild and develop a high school program once considered one of the best in the country.

“Each one of the coach’s situations—how they became coaches at Clarke Central—is very different,” said David Perno, who is in his eighth season as Clarke Central’s head football coach. “Still, what they all have in common is they’re 1) good, quality people; and 2) good coaches who understand what it takes to be successful at a school like Clarke Central. I look for those traits in all of my assistants. But, besides those, I’m going to look hard at anyone who has college playing experience. And the fact there was the connection with the University of Georgia with each of them, [the coaches] became a natural fit for me.”

Perno, an Athens native and Clarke Central alum, has his own connection with Georgia. After playing baseball for the Bulldogs, followed by serving as an assistant coach, he was Georgia’s head baseball coach for 12 seasons (2002-2013), including two in which he was named SEC Coach of the Year (2004, 2008). Perno was at Georgia as an assistant or head baseball coach during the football careers of all six Georgia players-turned-Clarke Central coaches.

In 2016, Perno became the head football coach at Clarke Central, where he'd been the starting fullback on the Gladiators’ 1985 state championship team. In search of a new offensive coordinator in his fourth season, he hired fellow Clarke Central alum Damien Gary, who had been a standout wide receiver-returner at Georgia from 1999-2003.

Notably, both Perno and Gary played at Clarke Central under legendary head coach Billy Henderson, a standout Georgia halfback in the 1940s and for whom the Gladiators’ football stadium is named. According to Perno, Gary got the Clarke Central offense “up to speed” upon his arrival in 2019.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a coincidence that all of us former Georgia players are coaching together—not at all,” said Gary, the head coach at Dougherty County for a season before returning to Clarke Central. “Playing for Georgia is a brotherhood. We have a great bond. And we all want to take care of our brothers. So, if there’s an opportunity to hire one, we’ll try to jump at that opportunity if it’s a good fit. Anytime there’s an opportunity to hire a Dawg, we’re going to at least look into and consider that opportunity.”

Gary, who remains ranked fifth all-time in SEC history in career punt return yardage, only took an interest in coaching after it was suggested by a friend. Nevertheless, he “instantly fell in love with it,” according to him. After serving as an assistant at Clarke Central from 2006 through 2010, Gary coached in the college ranks at Mars Hill and UNC-Charlotte—securing both jobs via contacts made while playing at Georgia—before coaching high school football again in 2018. The next year, he left Dougherty County to return home to Athens and coach his son, Jalen, who transferred from nearby Oconee County High School to play for his father at Clarke Central.

Kareem Marshall, Georgia’s starting right tackle for its 2002 SEC championship season, began coaching at Clarke Central the same season as Gary. Marshall currently serves as an assistant coach for the Gladiators’ offensive and defensive lines. Recently, Dan Inman became the team’s offensive line coach. A four-year starter along Georgia’s offensive line from 2003-2006, Inman twice earned All-SEC honors as a junior and senior. Josh Dawson, a defensive end for Georgia in the final years of the Richt era, is Clarke Central’s defensive coordinator. Anthony Lonon, who played tight end and defensive end under Donnan at Georgia, serves as a consultant and booster club president for the Gladiators. Finally, Boss Bailey, a first-team All-American linebacker at Georgia in 2002, was hired this season to coach and run Clarke Central’s freshman football team. Lonon and Bailey each have a son on the Clarke Central varsity squad.

“Those coaches not only have college playing experience—but experience at Georgia. That can help us attract players,” said Perno, who consulted former Bulldog head coaches Donnan and Richt to help fill his Clarke Central staff. “Kids wanting to play football in this area can relate to Georgia football players. So, it’s natural that you’d want familiar staff members, who love being part of this community, to help coach your team.”

Evident this year, there’s a certain comradery amongst the coaches who played at Georgia, and more so than “just always talking about our Dawgs,” according to Gary.

“A few of us played together at Georgia at the same time. So, whether on the field or off, that familiarity with one another and where we come from is definitely an advantage for this coaching staff,” Gary said. “As Georgia players, we faced the same obstacles—and know what it takes to overcome those obstacles. We communicate that to our players. And any familiar voice that can help relay the message of what we’re trying to communicate, we’re definitely going to try to take advantage of that.”

Since it reached the state championship finals seven times, winning three, in a 16-season span during the 1970s-1980s-1990s under Henderson—and all while playing in the highest classification in the state—the Clarke Central football program has faced its fair share of obstacles. Over the last couple of decades, more and more prep football talent has been dispersed amongst surrounding county, city, and private schools, while the Clarke Central program faces economic factors that most of those surrounding schools do not. “It can be a tough dynamic,” according to Perno.

Faced with these obstacles, and as its roster has slowly declined over the years in sheer numbers, particularly in the number of major college prospects, Clarke Central has found it more difficult to play and excel at a championship level, as it did before.

“Because of all the [school] choices now, there’s competition for players. But that’s why we do things to attract the type of players we need to be successful,” said Perno who, despite the roadblocks, has guided the Gladiators to the Class 5A playoffs in each of his first seven seasons, including reaching the quarterfinals three of the last five years. “Besides having familiar names and faces on our staff, we started a youth league as a true feeder program where kids can start wearing the Clarke Central colors as early as six-years-old and hopefully aspire to be Gladiator football players. Also, the team being run by Boss Bailey is the first freshman football team we’ve had here at the school in about six years.”

Gary is further developing the Clarke Central program by virtue of his past experiences. He’s taking what he learned from a legend more than 25 years ago, and passing it along to his players to inspire them to succeed.

“I played for Billy Henderson, one of the greatest coaches and people to walk the earth. What I learned from him when I attended Clarke Central—discipline, commitment to excellence, working hard, being a good person, doing right—helped me get to Georgia, and then succeed at Georgia,” Gary said. “I’m trying to take what I learned and pass it along to our players to help inspire them not only to be better football players, but be better people, as well.”

The inspired Gladiators are off to their best start in years. They opened this season by soundly defeating Cedar Shoals, their crosstown rival, by three touchdowns. Last Friday, they beat Oconee County, a team that had defeated the Gladiators three consecutive times by an average winning margin of 20 points. After an open date this Friday, Clarke Central will host Gainesville High School on September 8, looking to start a season at 3-0 for the first time since 2010.

According to Perno, much of Clarke Central’s early success can be attributed to its Bulldog-heavy coaching staff.

“Clarke Central is a storied program. We’re trying to bring some of that success back—and we’re getting there,” Perno said. “And we couldn’t do it without the staff that’s here. They’re really good.”