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LEE COUNTY, GEORGIA --
Kevin Dowling, Lee County High School's principal for six years, is the 2012 Georgia Principal of the Year.

"His presentation as a finalist the way he presented himself and told about the accomplishments of the Lee County High School was what won the battle for him," says Melton Callahan, Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals.

Faculty, staff and even the superintendent planned a surprise where they made this announcement. Dowling says a faculty member told him someone broke a TV in the new cafeteria, which lead him to the surprise.

"I'm ready to chew nails because I thought someone threw something and broke a TV," says Dowling. "So I walk in, I'm holding the door for some staff members and I turn around and there's you guys with the cameras and I went, "Uhhh' and that's when it hit me."

Dowling says it's his love for the students that sets him apart from other principals, saying sometimes he thinks he cares too much.

"I love kids. I love teenagers. A lot of people say that they're the most cynical, they're the most sarcastic, and they are. But you get them when they're still kids and when they leave they're adults and we get to help them finish that pathway," he says

Dowling will go on to Washington, D.C. to compete with principals fromt he other forty-nine states in the coming months.

"I have no expectations," says Dowling. "I'm just so shocked and awed by this it's truly an honor."

His mother says she has other expectations for her son in the national competition.

"I think he's going to win. he's a winner," says Lillian "Joyce" Dowling.

Kevin says he sees the award as not just a personal win but a win for the entire school. He says he couldn't do what he does daily without the help of staff and students.