Chad Cheatham

Chad Cheatham retired as head football coach at Fannin County High School at the end of the 2025 season. During his eight seasons at the helm, the Rebels enjoyed a level of success the program had never seen before. He stepped away with an overall record of 59 wins and 33 losses, the most victories by any head coach in school history. He was also the only Fannin County coach to reach the playoffs and post a winning record in Class AAA, and along the way he won three region championships, made two trips to the state quarterfinals, reached the Sweet 16 twice and produced two perfect regular seasons. In recognition of his teams' success, Chad was named GACA Coach of the Year three times, Northwest Georgia Coach of the Year twice and Atlanta Zone Class A Coach of the Year once. Chad's road to the Hall of Fame began in the community of Epworth. He is the son of Steve and Barbara Cheatham, both 1966 graduates of West Fannin High School. Steve was a running back and co-captain of the 1965 Yellow Jacket football team. He was inducted into the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and remains the only player in West Fannin history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. Chad got an early start as a player, joining the first football team sponsored by the Fannin County Recreation Department in 1983. He went on to play quarterback and running back at Fannin County High School, graduating in 1991. Throughout his playing days he proudly wore number 20, the same number his dad had worn. He was also well liked by his classmates, who voted him Most Popular Boy in the eighth grade and again in his sophomore, junior and senior years. After graduating from Fannin, Chad attended the University of Georgia, where he earned a B.S. in Education. He stayed close to the game, working at the YMCA in Athens and serving as a volunteer assistant at Clarke Central High School during his junior and senior years. He also coached Rec League football for a couple of years. All through college, his goal was a career in coaching. Sonny Smart, father of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, was a legendary coach at Rabun County High School. Chad joined his staff in 1996 and spent the next seven years at Rabun. Coach Smart became one of Chad's most important early mentors, the man who, in Chad's own words, "taught me everything I know about football." It was also at Rabun County that Chad came to know Kirby, who is close to the same age as Chad, now 53, and the two have remained lifelong friends. When Sonny Smart retired in 2003, Chad continued his coaching journey at Jefferson High School and Oglethorpe County High School. He filled a wide range of roles as his career grew: secondary coach, linebacker coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, weight room coordinator and, again in Chad's words, "grasscutter, line painter and anything else that needed to be done." At Jefferson, another coach played a major part in shaping Chad as a young coach on the rise. Jack Nolen Keen was a legend at Jefferson. A Georgia Tech graduate who had been an Olympic gymnast and track star, Keen spent 50 years in coaching and education, 42 of them at Jefferson, where he taught mathematics and calculus while coaching wrestling, track and field and football. He and his wife raised five children, the youngest of whom was a charming young woman and standout athlete named Katherine. Katherine Keen was a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she had been a member of the track and field team. An avid rock climber, she was teaching special education at Jefferson when she met Chad Cheatham. The energetic pair had plenty in common, and it wasn't long before they were inseparable. They married in 2005. Chad and Katherine, by then the parents of two children, moved to Banks County High in 2016, where Chad served as an assistant football coach and strength and conditioning coach. He was promoted to head coach in early 2018. All the while, Chad had kept an eye on the head coaching job at his hometown school. Timing is everything in life, and the time had never seemed right to pursue the position when it had come open before. In early 2018, however, Fannin County High decided to make a change at the top, and the decision-makers turned their attention to Chad Cheatham. He was offered the job and decided the time was right to "come home." When he told the Banks County administration of his decision, they understood the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had come his way and did not stand in his path. And so Chad Cheatham's coaching journey brought him to Fannin County in time for the 2018 football season. The rest is history. Having come home and found success, Chad now moves on, leaving the football program better than he found it. As Chad wraps up a 30-year coaching career in Georgia's public schools, he will move on to help launch the athletics program at North Georgia Christian School in Ellijay. Braxton, the son of Chad and Katherine, graduated from Fannin High in 2026 and will continue his academic and athletic career in the track and field program at Western Carolina University. Daughter Anna Leigh will be a senior at Fannin High in 2026-27 and is a rising star in track and field, soccer and flag football. Fannin County is a better place because of people like Chad Cheatham. In his chosen profession he gave his community something to take pride in, and he will be missed on the sidelines on autumn Friday nights, leading the Rebels.