Nelson County needed a new head football coach with the exit of Mark Poston to Rockbridge after three seasons and the Governors didn’t have to look far.
In fact, they found their man just one county to their north.
Matt Hicks, formerly an assistant at Monticello and most recently the defensive coordinator at Albemarle, is headed to Nelson County to take over the head football job and will be officially announced next week . Hicks was the Monticello head lacrosse coach and a football assistant for several years before he headed to the collegiate ranks to work for Virginia State’s football program. Hicks returned to the Albemarle County Public Schools and joined Brandon Isaiah’s staff at Albemarle. He currently works at Yancey Elementary in ACPS.
Now Hicks will face the task of building off of Poston’s complete overhaul over the last three years where the former Eastern Montgomery coach tried to essentially re-pour the foundation of football in the entire county, getting a middle school program going among many other changes. The school system has also been involved in that commitment, installing an essentially new stadium and playing surface. There’s also been upgrades in the school’s weight room and he’s gotten the program headed in the right direction by installing a more advanced game preparation regimen that included according to the Nelson County Times having quarterback Devante Ellis-Rose watch tape of Georgia Tech games after the Governors installed the triple option.
Hicks has been involved in a number of successful programs, including some strong Monticello squads and Albemarle’s 2015 playoff squad. Hicks also led the Mustangs’ lacrosse squad into a position to contend on the local scene as they played for a West Central Division title back in 2013 where they narrowly lost to Western Albemarle in the championship game.
He takes over a Nelson County squad that went 3-27 the last three years under Poston, but that record certainly underestimates the amount of change that Poston catalyzed in his time there. Poston faced an extremely difficult schedule that includes all the Dogwood District opponents, some of which are some of the top small schools in the state and also had a challenging out-of-district slate the first couple of years that included perennial powerhouse Riverheads.
The Governors haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002, an 8-3 campaign. The last squad to reach the .500 mark came in 2007.
