Augusta Colts president and general manager John Sisson confirmed Friday afternoon that head coach Bubba Diggs was no longer under contract with the team. But Sisson said he hoped to re-sign the longtime indoor football coach this fall.
"Is he currently the coach? No," Sisson said. "Is he out of the picture for the future? Not at all."
It was all news to Diggs.
"This is the first time I'm hearing this," Diggs said when contacted Friday. "I'm shocked. It's a slap in the face. All I know was he told me he'd compensate me through the end of July instead of the end of the year like I was supposed to get. Now this."
Diggs said he was under the impression his contract would run through December of this year as it had when he was head coach of the Augusta Spartans in 2007. Sisson said Diggs' current contract expired at the end of the season, and he planned to sign Diggs to a new contract in the off-season.
"What it boils down to is we're creating a budget and starting from ground zero," Sisson said. "We're at the end of the season and we're bringing in new investors, and we're trying to figure out the front office and the business side of things first."
The Colts just added in two new investors, Tony Zefiretto and Andrew Wright, as minority owners.
Sisson, who still owns 85 percent of the team, said he hopes to sign Diggs to a new contract sometime in September or October. Diggs said he still wanted to be "cordial" to the team despite his disagreement with how his contract has been handled.
"Before this happened, I was looking to go forward and have a great second year with a full off-season of recruiting. We needed a second year with no change to really establish the team," Diggs said. "This is not the way to go; not paying your coach. That's not the way to handle it. I just hope now that he'll still compensate me through the end of July like he said he would, and then we'll go from there."
No longer the current head coach, Diggs -- who has served on the coaching staff of all three past Augusta indoor football teams -- might speak with other teams, including those in the Arena Football League and AFL2.
"I realize we are leaving ourselves vulnerable for not having him under contract," Sisson said. "This is not a slight on coach Diggs. There's a great deal of love and respect for him, and he's certainly worth a lot."
Diggs said he'd rather not leave Augusta but might reconsider.
"My priority is family first. I want to be here," he said.
"But now if the opportunity presents itself, I might have to look at it."
Diggs led the Spartans to a World Indoor Football League Championship in 2007. This past spring, the Colts finished their first year in the American Indoor Football Association with a 7-7 record.
In other off-the-field news, Sisson requested and was granted a meeting with the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority's Arena Football/Hockey committee to discuss the outstanding debt that the Colts still owed for their 2008 home games at James Brown Arena.
The team, which paid for its first three home games, hasn't paid for the final four home games and owes $13,241.34.
Only two of the five committee members, committee chair Keith Brown and member Bill Law, attended the meeting Friday morning, but an agreement was reached without the need of a quorum.
Sisson requested that a letter of credit, backed by a $30,000 certificate of deposit, he gave James Brown Arena at the beginning of the year be released to him so he could cash the CD and use the funds to pay off the remaining debt.
The committee denied the request and instead decided to follow past procedure and use the letter of credit to obtain the outstanding debt. The committee instructed James Brown Arena's interim manager Linda Roberts to wait until Monday morning to use the letter of credit. Sisson said he might hand over a cashier's check before then and keep the CD.
Reach Billy Byler at (706) 823-3216 or billy.byler@augustachronicle.com.
THE GREAT INDOORS
Here's a look at Bubba Diggs' indoor football coaching career:
2000: Augusta Stallions -- line coach
2001: Augusta Stallions -- defensive coordinator
2002: Augusta Stallions -- defensive coordinator
2003: Columbus Wardogs -- line coach
2004: Macon Knights -- defensive coordinator
2005: Did not coach
2006: Augusta Spartans -- head coach
2007: Augusta Spartans -- head coach
2008: Augusta Colts -- head coach
If you let Bubba get away you will miss him. He is a credit to his profession. I worked with Bubba in the late eighties at SRS, this is what he knows and loves. New bumper sticker "Keep Bubba".
BS, I am NOT disputing his history and his knowledge, but I want to tell you something that really discouraged me about him. For work reasons, my family and I had missed out on every single home game except the last one. We got tickets and were able to sit in the first row endzone, so we were able to see the coaches and interactions pretty well and often. Long about half-time, I could just sense that Coach Diggs had all but thrown in the towel on this game! The opposing coach was working his butt off, but Diggs was just watching and occasionally interjecting or positioning his players, nothing like his usual way of coaching that I remember from last year. What was up with that? I don't know, maybe he just didn't feel well, he saw the handwriting on the wall for this game...I don't know. I'm trying not to judge the man on the one and only game I saw this year. But I was alittle upset by it. Not saying the man doesn't deserve to come back next year. I'm just wondering if maybe Sisson and the 2 new part-owners saw that as well.
JustMyOpinion, from the sounds of things, it looks like the Coach saw the writing on the wall about the ownership troubles as well. Maybe the things going on behind the scenes are what caused the lack of gusto and excitement. Apparently there have been money issues for months and it looks like the team suffered b/c of it.
Well for Sisson to be behind on paying his bills that would have given me a red flag, if you know you have to pay for those home games pay them, why let them build up? Sisson may not have any money. Maybe he's a pretend and was hoping to make big bucks at those home games and didn't so now he has no money to pay.
What a joke. And those new investors only purchased 15% of the Colts? That's another joke.
Sounds like the same old thing. The owner wants to keep the money, make Diggs squirm until he figures it out. Credit goes to the authority for getting their money. Now Diggs needs to get his. My only question (legal question) Is their a signed contract by GM, owner or team official and when does it end? Anybody wanna bet that the owner is lying and has left Diggs without a clueas to what is next? He stuck around builta team with no money, a substandard field and no real sales staff to sell tickets. God bless you Bubba. But this is business so go get your money. Keith Brown and the Coliseum Authority got theirs! Maybe it is time to move on and come back to Augusta with all of your connections and players because this guy does not deserve you. You are a class act!
Bubba may be a class act, but he did only og 7 and 7 this year in a better league. He may have won the championship i a 4 team league, but to me personally i think we could have done better as a team. I went to a bunch of the games and i to agree with Just my opinion and i too saw the team give up a bunch, granted it may they saw some money troubles, but I have done some talking to some people who are close to the situation and they said John paid off most of the debt left behind by Jimmy Young, I know I am rambling here but lets give these three a chance to turn this team around with or without Bubba, in my opinion I think a change is good but I am probably in the minority here, I am already getting ready for next year's opening kickoff
I am just throwing this out there cause i don't even know if it is possible, but i think the new head coach should be a player/coach in Marvin Stone! He is the only reason anyone goes to those games anyway. Plus letsmoveon is right, Bubba only went 7 and 7 and lacked that killer instinct we need to bring another Championship back to "Title Town of the South"-AUGUSTA!!
MagicRocket, I have talked to Mr Young and over half the $$$ has still not been paid off on his behalf. Diggs didn't get a chance to recruit players until jan and feb, so he had to settle for what was left. give him a chance to actually build a team and they'll be 14-0.
Bubba Diggs is a fine Christian man who lives and breathes football, of any nature. He did not deserve this blindside shot and if there is justice, those responsible for all the pre-season guarantees, commitments, and ect. will do the right thing...by all who were promised payment. There is an honorable way to handle money issues, and then there is the "other" way....ignoring the problem is obviously not the way to go. We wish Coach Diggs much success in his next course of action, and future coaching adventures! He will be alright, he has God on his side! And the CSRA as well! You just gotta love a hard working, honest, kind hearted, decent human being.
You are right! Bubba is a fine Christian man! He as well as others who worked for the GM of the Colts have been done very wrong. Yes, Coach Diggs had a lot on his mind this season. He has had to deal with many things. His Mother was sick and then passed away just as the season got started good. He has had to deal with a GM who goes from one extreme to other in 2.5 seconds (you can read between the lines on this one)! He has had to deal with players threatening not to play because they were not getting paid as promised. He has had to deal with promises made to the public by the GM that have not been kept. Not to mention the players being fired up because they know the GM wants them to lose so he doesn't have to pay them the extra bonus to win! With all of these obstacles to try and overcome, I think he did a great job coaching this past season. As for a change needing to be made, the only change that needs to be made is to get rid of the GM and get someone who really cares about the team and knows how to run it and make it great!
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
