In a called meeting on January 4, 2024, the Pickens County Board of Education approved the hiring of Craig Bennett to serve as the next Head Football Coach for Pickens High School.
Coach Bennett has served the last 12 years as the head football coach at Cambridge High School in north Fulton County. He has been one of the longest tenured head football coaches in metro Atlanta, serving in this leadership role since Cambridge opened as a school in the fall of 2012.
As the Head Football Coach at Cambridge, Coach Bennett has led his team to the state playoffs in each of the past four years and advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2020, 2021, and 2022. His 2021 team finished #7 in the final state AAAAAA rankings. In 2022 Coach Bennett’s team won the Region 6AAAAA championship, and again finished #7 in the final state rankings. Coach Bennett serves on the board of the Georgia Football Coaches Association and has been named Coach of the Week by the Atlanta Touchdown Club and Region Coach of the Year by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association.
Coach Bennett also served as Associate Athletic Director at Cambridge. Prior to his time at Cambridge, Coach Bennett taught Social Studies and coached at Pope High School, Darlington, and Milton High School. In addition to coaching football, he has also served as assistant coach in girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball, track, and golf. While at Milton, Coach Bennett also served as the head coach of girls’ basketball and Athletic Director.
Coach Bennett is married to Shay, a special education pre-K teacher. Craig and Shay have two daughters. Rilee recently graduated from Coastal Carolina. McCall is currently a kicker on the Valdosta State football team. Coach Bennett is excited to join the Dragon Nation. “I look forward to getting to work on building the football program on hard work, character, and discipline. We are going to put a team on the field that will make Pickens County proud. My family looks forward to being a part of the community and joining Dragon Nation.”
