Former Essex coach wins Georgiana mayor post

Jerome Antone, who resigned from his coaching duties at John Essex High School Monday, won a runoff election for the Georgiana mayoral post Tuesday.

“It’s not just one thing that I have as experience — it’s numerous things I have of experience, besides the health department and things of that nature. Education… dealing with children. I have worked with kids, [and] send them off on scholarships,” Antone told WAKA of Montgomery prior to Tuesday’s election. “Here in Georgiana, we have a high drop-out rate and we want to fix that drop-out rate by bringing new programs to the city such as the GED program.”

Antone received 54 percent of the total vote, defeating challenger Larry Creech 327-276. Antone pulled 117 votes to Creech’s 109 in the Aug. 28 municipal election to force Tuesday’s runoff.

Antone, who has maintained his Georgiana residence during his tenure at John Essex, resigned from his duties as head football coach and boys and girls basketball coach just three days after the JEHS football team lost to J.U. Blacksher 39-8.

Antone, who coached for a total of 29 years, finished his tenure at Essex with a record of 11-15 in a little more than two and a half seasons with the Hornets.

Sparse participation marred Antone’s tenure in much the same way it did those of his predecessors. The Hornets entered the 2012 season with only 14 players. Through the first six weeks of the season, a number of them have sustained injuries that are serious enough to threaten the school’s ability to field a team for each of its remaining contests.

Antone’s best season with Essex came in 2010, his first campaign at the school. The Hornets put together a 5-5 record that season, narrowly missing a playoff berth.

Assistant coach Brad Daniels will finish the season as the John Essex head coach.