Ironside returns to Cobb County as Osborne offensive coordinator

There will be a familiar face roaming some of Cobb County’s sidelines this fall, albeit in a different role.

After two years as the head coach at Worth County High School in south Georgia, former Hillgrove coach Phil Ironside is the new offensive coordinator at Osborne.

Ironside will be helping out longtime friend and colleague Luqman Salam, who took over the Cardinals’ program a year ago. Salam spent 12 years working with Ironside as an offensive assistant and then as defensive coordinator at Hillgrove.

“You want to work for good people,” Ironside said. “Osborne has good administration. It was the right fit at the right time.”

After four years as the coach at Campbell, Ironside launched Hillgrove’s program in 2006. Once the Hawks became eligible to qualify for the playoffs in 2008, they went on to make the postseason 11 of 12 seasons, including each the last 10 years with Ironside at the helm.

Ironside won four region titles and guided Hillgrove to the state quarterfinals four times. However, after the 2019 season, he said he knew he needed a break. That is when he took the job at Worth County.

“It was good to get away and step back from (being a coach in Class AAAAAAA),” he said.

Ironside took over a Class AA Worth County program that had gone 3-27 over the previous three years and led it to back-to-back 4-6 seasons. However, after last year, he said he realized he was not the young man the Rams needed to lead that program.

“If I was 35 and just getting started, I would have been stubborn and figured out a way to see it through,” said Ironside, who has a career record of 135-81 over 20 years, “but I’m 55, and I just don’t have the energy needed to be that kind of full-time head coach any more.”

Ironside said he and Salam talked about four times a week throughout last season, and once the season was over, discussions about a possible reunion started. However, while Ironside was done at Worth County, his wife, track and field coach Latashia Ironside, was not — at least, not at the time.

“I told my wife I was done at Worth and I said, ‘You’ve been with me every step of the way. You tell me where you want to coach, and I’ll follow you around,’” Phil Ironside said.

Ironside said he and his wife wanted to continue to coach at the same school, just like they had at Hillgrove. At that time, Ironside told Salam it would be a done deal if Salam could find a spot for his wife, it would a done deal.

It took until April, but Latashia Ironside will also be coming to Osborne to be a physical education teacher and coach track for the Cardinals.

“Coaching for me is more of a calling,” said Phil Ironside, a former college quarterback at Middle Tennessee State. “We liked the idea of Osborne because there is a sense the kids really need you, and we wanted to go somewhere where that was most important. Getting this opportunity just felt right.”