CLEVELAND — Tommy Flowers certainly made the most out of a terribly difficult situation this season as White County High’s football coach.

Formerly the team’s defensive coordinator, Flowers stepped into the role of head coach when former coach Gregg Segraves was placed on indefinite leave on Sept. 22 and subsequently resigned amidst allegations of domestic violence from his wife Cindy.

“It was a bittersweet proposition for me,” Flowers said. “It was a good experience for me personally, but not at all the way I wanted it to happen as a friend and former co-worker of coach Segraves.”

What Flowers did as a head coach was incredible. He carried a White County program loaded with senior talent to its first home playoff win in school history, a 9-3 final record and a trip to the region championship game in 8-AAA.

For his efforts, Flowers is The Times’ Football Coach of the Year.

“My job was keeping the wheels on the program,” Flowers said. “We changed very little when I became head coach, we just altered some things.

“We ran a little more option on offense, but those were things that we already had in the package.”

This year was Flowers’ first as a head coach, though he’d been approached for jobs in that capacity before.

When he came to White County four years ago, he brought winning experience, having served on the Thomas County Central staff during the school’s run of state championships in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997.

“We knew coach Flowers was going to do a good job as head coach,” White County senior Adam Hooper said.

“He’s just a good Christian man and wants the best for the team.”

After serving as an assistant coach at Tift County before arriving in Cleveland, he came in at White County when he felt the program had a lot of work to do to become a serious contender. At that time, he wouldn’t have imagined for a second that White County would beat LaGrange, then one of the best team’s in the entire state, in a playoff game.

However, that’s exactly what happened. Despite trailing against LaGrange 14-6 at halftime, the Warriors kept battling to pull out the come-from-behind victory in front of the home crowd.

“If you had told me four years ago that we would beat LaGrange in the playoffs, I would have thought you were crazy,” Flowers said. “No win in my career was more satisfying than that.”

Flowers doesn’t know if he’ll stay in the role of head coach next season at White County. It’s a matter that the school’s administration still has out on the table.

“I’m sure that the administration will make the right decision,” Flowers said.