CFCA coach, administrator Jake Walls to retire

Jake Walls knew the day was coming for almost two years.

The time to share the information came Tuesday when he posted a video announcing that his days at Central Fellowship were coming to an end at the conclusion of the school year.

For the first time in his life, Walls won’t be a coach and/or athletics director and/or school administrator of any kind.

He’ll be leading a family business, the Veritas Classical Schools.

“That’s Latin for ‘truth’,” Walls explained about the meaning of Veritas. “It’s a homeschool group. It’s kind of a demographic trend. I think homeschool is growing.”

Veritas has two campuses in Middle Georgia with about 300 students.

Walls’ father-in-law, who is 74, decided about 18 months ago he was ready to turn over the keys, and they had a timeline.

“He basically came to me and said, ‘Hey man, I need some help,” Walls said. “(Walls’ son) Judson was a junior. ‘Well, let me get Judson graduated.’”

There’s one more Walls in a future lineup, fourth-grader Dabney, and his dad didn’t count out the possibility of returning to coaching in time for his varsity days.

But thinking about that is way down the line.

“I’m burned out, man,” Walls said. “It’s just a hard business. … When you start out with 240 kids, you can manage it. But last year, we had 525 kids, doubled in size since I’ve been here.”

Walls resigned in the spring of 2016 at Westfield, his alma mater, after 11 seasons as head boys basketball coach. He remained at the school temporarily as offensive coordinator for then-new head football coach Jamey Watson.

Walls was named principal at CFCA in February of 2018.

He estimates his basketball coaching record at “something like” 175-160 with a region title and a few GISA Final Fours. He guessed the football mark at about 60-31-1 with three state titles (one GIAA and two Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools, GAPPS).

Walls was a guard at Covenant College near Chattanooga and scored more than 1,500 points in his career, from 1995-99.

His coaching career began at Covenant Academy in Macon as head boys basketball coach and athletics director before moving on after two years to a few seasons as a basketball and football assistant to Greg Moore at FPD.

He took over the boys basketball head coaching job at Westfield in 2005-06, resigning after a decade but staying around two more years on the staff of Watson’s football staff.

“Westfield’s a great school, kids are great,” said Walls, who applied for the football job. “It was easy to teach there. It was easy to coach there.”

Maybe too easy.

“I just needed a challenge, honestly,” he said. “Yeah it sounds weird but … I got kinda bored.”

And some relationships at Central Fellowship were revived. Walls’ dad went to college with CFCA pastor Rodney Queen, and there were conversations.

Before long, Walls was at Central Fellowship.

“Yeah, man, I think I would like to come over there and try it out,” Walls said of his thought process at the time. “So, I took about a (five-digit) pay cut and came over here and did a thousand times more than I was doing.”

Walls has been head football coach, athletics director, dean of students, and finally principal.

Soon, he’ll just be the boss of an education group.

“I think it’s going to be a good change of pace,” said the 48-year-old father of six.  “But I enjoyed the kids at every place immensely.”