Bainbridge High School basketball coach Rickey McCullough has announced that he is retiring after ten years heading the program.

“The guy’s a legend,” athletic director Stan Killough said. “Basketball has always been strong here. Rickey I think, he knew the tradition when he got here and he just kind of took us to the next step next level. He just came in. The thing about him he’s just so good with young people. He’s been a role model for them. He’s run a clean program.”

Following McCullough’s announcement that he was retiring after the season a six person committee that included Killough and Dr. Larry Clark was formed to hire a new basketball coach. They interviewed seven candidates for the position.

At the Thursday April 21 Board of Education meeting it was officially announced that Terry Smith, who is currently the head basketball coach at Peach County High in Fort Valley, Georgia, was the choice.

“We were just impressed with his philosophy, with his work ethic, with the fact that he wanted to be here,” Killough said. “That he wanted to be a part of this community and this school.”

Smith spent one season at Peach County where he amassed a 2-22 record. Prior to that he was the head coach at Crisp County High School.

“When you hear those numbers and when all you’re looking at is the record I can understand why that might be a concern for people, but I think when you meet the man,” Killough said. “We were looking for the best man. We took the applicants that applied for the job and we picked the best man.”

Killough said that while wins and loses are important they were also looking for the person that could have the best impact on the players off the court.

“Winning and losing is very important,” Killough said. “We want to win all the championships we can win, but we also want to produce championship people… We were looking for a guy that fit. That fit our community. A guy that wants to be here.”

Coach Smith said that the Bainbridge job is one that he has looked at for years and that it is a place he has long desired to coach.

“I’ve always been interested in the job in Bainbridge,” Smith said. “The school, the facilities, they’ve always had athletes. Its pretty much a one horse town where pretty much the whole community gets behind not just the school, but also from an athletic standpoint.”

With the move to a new region with only five teams, Smith said that he will look to schedule tougher completion to prepare the team for the post season.

“You want your kids to be peaking going into the post season,” Smith said. “If we are fortunate enough to get a north Georgia school on the schedule that’d be perfect. If you have aspirations to win a state championship in basketball it goes through north Georgia. Now your kids get a chance to see during the season what that style of basketball is like.”

Killough said that Smith will likely help coach football at a sub-varsity level along with his duties coaching basketball.

“We hired a basketball coach that wants to coach football,” Killough said.

He said the reason Smith wants to coach football is to show solidarity with players who play multiple sports.