John Reid, who led the Raiders of East Paulding High to an 11-2 record this past football season, is leaving Dallas and headed south to Tifton to become the new head coach of the Tift Co. Blue Devils. The hiring of Reid occurred on Tuesday according to the Tifton Gazette.

Reid was 60-15 in the six seasons he was at East Paulding. Reid took the Raiders to the semifinals of the state playoffs in 2006, his first season at East Paulding and made it to the quarterfinals in the 2007, 2010, and 2011 seasons. Tift Co. made it to the semifinals in 2006 under Jay Walls but had a troubling season in 2011 falling to 3-7. Walls was relieved of his duties at the end of 2011.

Tift Co. was placed in the new AAAAAA classification and will be playing in region one starting in the 2012 season along with Lowndes, Valdosta, Camden Co., and Colquitt Co.

(Portions of this story were gathered from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)