BUFORD — Buford High School’s transformation into one of Georgia’s most successful athletic programs did not begin with championship predictions. It began with a larger question: What would it take to give every Buford team a chance to succeed?
In 1995, Buford competed in Class A and had won just four state championships in its history. Three decades later, its name is associated with excellence across a wide range of sports.
Many people helped build the foundation before the spotlight arrived. Dexter Wood was one of those central figures.
When Wood became athletic director in 1999, he and other Buford leaders focused on creating the conditions for sustained success: exceptional coaches, common standards, character development, feeder programs, quality facilities and equal support across an expanding lineup of sports.
Their goal was not to build one dominant team. It was to create a system in which every program had the leadership, resources and expectations necessary to compete at a high level.
That system became known as what Wood calls “The Buford Way.”
“We don’t talk about championships, but about being the very best version of ourselves,” Wood said.
Winning remained important, but it was viewed as the product of daily preparation rather than the department’s sole purpose. Coaches were expected to develop athletes’ character as deliberately as their athletic ability.
The foundation, Wood said, was hiring and retaining outstanding people. We evaluated coaches through what we called the “three C’s”: competence, connection and character.
“Technical knowledge matters, but so does the ability to form relationships and model the qualities Buford wants its athletes to carry beyond high school,” Wood said.
Coaches retained the freedom to build cultures suited to their sports. The technical demands of championship football and championship softball were different, Wood said, but the qualities behind successful programs were often the same: poise, class, effort, toughness, love, respect and family.
Tony Wolfe, now the district athletic director and has worked with Wood for more than 30 years at BHS. He was a key assistant football coach during Wood’s tenure as head football coach. Wolfe saw those principles in Wood’s approach to football.
“Coach Wood’s coaching style demanded that we always be a well-coached, fundamentally sound football program that executed flawlessly in every area of the game and in our lives,” Wolfe said. “His coaching style was always built around his Christian faith and the way we treated everyone, players, fans, opponents and officials. His faith was at the forefront of everything he did and everything he expected from everyone.”
Wood emphasized the daily process and warned that before a team could win, it had to stop beating itself. On the field, that meant blocking and tackling well, protecting the football, controlling special teams and forcing defenses to cover the entire field. Off the field, it meant representing Buford with poise and class.
Wolfe said several games showed how those principles translated into results: a road victory over South Georgia power Miller County in 2000, the 2001 state championship victory at Bowdon and a win over two-time defending Class AA champion Americus in the 2002 semifinals at the Georgia Dome.
“All of those games displayed the poise, class, toughness and ability to execute at a high level, the things he preached every single day,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe also remembers Wood demonstrating humility in both victory and defeat, providing another example for coaches and players to follow.
Girls’ programs prove the model
The growth of girls’ athletics became one of the clearest examples of how Buford’s system could transform an entire department.
In the early 2000s, the school had never won a state championship in a girls’ sport. Wood and other leaders began meeting regularly with the head coaches of girls’ teams to identify what those programs needed to compete at the same level as the boys’ teams.
Their approach was straightforward: Set the same expectations, provide the same support and place exceptional coaches in charge.
The breakthrough came in 2007, when Wolfe led Buford’s softball team to the first girls’ state championship in school history. The softball program went on to win nine consecutive titles.
Gene Durden’s girls’ basketball program soon won its first state championship and later added eight more.
Since that first girls’ state championship in 2007, Buford’s girls’ teams have won 37 state championships.
Those programs did more than add trophies. They demonstrated that Buford’s model could work across sports and genders. Championship expectations were spreading throughout the department.
Building for sustained success
As Buford grew, its athletic opportunities grew with it.
Between 1999 and 2017, the department added or expanded programs including competition cheerleading, soccer, fast-pitch softball, volleyball, swimming, lacrosse, riflery, gymnastics, bass fishing and diving.
Tony Wolfe, left, speaks with a Buford pitcher and catcher during a mound visit. Now the district athletic director, Wolfe has contributed to Buford’s success across football, softball, baseball and athletic administration.
The athletic department added trainers, coordinators and administrative support to manage its increasing size and complexity. Middle school athletics also expanded, creating stronger pathways from youth sports to varsity competition.
Those additions rarely appeared on a scoreboard, but they created the organizational foundation behind Buford’s success.
Feeder programs were another essential part of the system, Wood said. Buford worked closely with the City of Buford’s recreation department, using its facilities and building relationships with youth coaches.
Wood said those partnerships, including the football pipeline developed through Gwinnett Football League teams, helped young athletes reach high school prepared for Buford’s standards.
The transformation also depended on sustained support from the city, the Board of Education and school system administrators. Their investment helped Buford retain coaches, add sports and improve facilities as enrollment and participation increased.
Wolfe pointed to Wood’s vision for the field house addition and renovations at Tom Riden Stadium as examples of his commitment to excellence. He also credited Wood with hiring coaches who improved the football program while helping players become better young men.
Strength and conditioning became another priority. Buford developed weight rooms, purchased high-level equipment and placed experienced coaches alongside its athletes.
As the school climbed through the Georgia High School Association’s classifications, it began facing schools with much larger enrollments. Each move raised questions about whether Buford’s success would translate against stronger competition.
The classifications changed. The process did not.
By then, Buford had established a culture strong enough to move with it. Its success was not tied to one classification, coach or group of athletes. It rested on standards that could be taught and passed forward.
A culture carried by people
Wood is quick to share credit for Buford’s rise.
He identifies longtime Buford leader Phillip Beard as a central figure in the success of the school system, city and athletic department. Wood strongly believes that “Phillip Beard’s visionary leadership, business acumen, and care and devotion to all our programs cannot be measured and has no equal.”
Dexter Wood, left, talks with Tony Wolfe during Buford’s championship celebration earlier this year honoring the school’s softball and football teams.
He points to city commissioner Chris Burge as an integral supporter.
Wood also credits Wolfe for his influence across football, softball, baseball and athletic administration. He cites Jess Simpson’s championship leadership in football and his mentorship of Bryant Appling, along with David Snell’s role in fostering a culture of love, trust, respect and character.
Their contributions illustrate a central truth about Buford’s transformation: Facilities and organizational structures mattered, but people carried the culture.
“Our intangibles have to be greater than our talents and as important as our wins,” Wood said.
For Wolfe, Wood’s influence extends beyond championships, facilities and the football field.
“Coach Wood’s lasting legacy will be one of excellence, poise, class, family and faith,” Wolfe said. “These are the things he lived and preached every single day. He left them in all of us to live, model and share.
“His impact on me and hundreds of others, as a coach, father, husband and man, will continue not only through us, but through all those we come in contact with. He made the football program great, the school better and the community grateful for his efforts and his life.”
That legacy helps explain how a Class A athletic department with four state championships became a broad-based Georgia power that has now won 76 state championships across all sports.
Buford did not build its identity around one title, one team or one coach. It built a repeatable system, one designed to keep improving as the school grew and to endure beyond the people who started it.
