After a three-month national search, Mt. Paran removed the interim tag this week of longtime assistant Connie Arnold and named him the third head coach in program history this week. Coach Arnold first joined the program in 2011 as a defensive backs coach and was on the staff of Mitch Jordan’s 2014 team that won the school’s first-ever football state title. This past year, Arnold took over for Matt Ely and led the Eagles to a 5-3 mark and the Eagles closed out the season 8-4 after advancing to the second round of the Class A-3A Private state playoffs.
This has been a busy offseason for Mt. Paran and the school has also restructured its leadership at the AD position. Last month, Mike Walker was named to be the school’s new athletic director on Friday to replace the vacancy left in January when former head football coach and AD Mitch Jordan stepped down. Coach Jordan had been at the school since 2008 when he launched the football program. Over his 14 years as coach, Mt. Paran went 101-55 and won a pair of region champions in addition to completing a perfect 14-0 season in 2014 and winning the school’s first-ever state title.
While Jordan was serving as athletic director, Mt. Paran won a total of 27 state titles. Additionally, Mt. Paran won the Director’s Cup, given to the best athletic program in the classification, for the past two years. Coach Jordan also is credited with helping Mt. Paran with numerous construction projects including the Catherine Steele Sewell Stadium and the Stephen A. Werner Athletic Complex that includes the fields for both softball and baseball. Jordan—a 1990 graduate from Darlington accepted the position at his alma mater to replace Eddie Guth.
It has been reported that Walker will be included in the final phases of the Knox Athletic Performance Center that is being built to give Mt. Paran athletics another first class facility.
“God has abundantly blessed MPC, and I am eager to build upon the strong foundation already in place,” said Walker. “My passion is to use the power of sports to positively influence students’ lives through the pursuit of athletic excellence.”
Finding a new head coach to replace Matt Ely was one of the first items on the agenda for Walker and the leadership at Mt. Paran and the search landed on promoting coach Arnold—who has also been serving as Mt. Paran’s wrestling coach and a middle school physical education teacher. Arnold began his coaching career in 1992 with McEachern’s middle school football program and later served as a varsity assistant at Cherokee. Arnold’s promotion at Mt. Paran gives Cobb County three new head coaches for 2025—joining Marietta’s Cameron Duke and Sprayberry’s Peter Fominaya. Pebblebrook has yet to announce its new coach to replace Michael Woolridge.
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