Local News
<img src="http://valdosta.sgaonline.com/headlines/breaking.gif" /> Rance Gillespie named Valdosta High football coach
By Adam MacDonald
The Valdosta Daily Times
With a 6-2 vote, the Valdosta Board of Education has approved the hiring of Rance Gillespie as the new Valdosta High football coach.
The Board met on Wednesday at 5 p.m. and spent an hour in executive session with Gillespie before coming to the conclusion that he would be the next Wildcats coach.
Gillespie was introduced to the crowd in attendance and made his first statement as the Wildcats coach.
“Since I was old enough to remember, Valdosta has always been the pinnacle of high school football,” Gillespie said. “I’ve worked very hard my whole career to get to the top and I can’t wait to start working at Valdosta High School as the leader of this program. I thank you for the opportunity. And I can say this, I can say this: I promise what you will get from me is a guy that will go to work each and every day to make this the premier program, not only in this state, but in this country, just like it used to be.”
Gillespie, 40, spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern under Chris Hatcher. At the end of the 2009 season, GSU did not renew the contracts of Hatcher and his staff.
Before following Hatcher to GSU, Gillespie spent six seasons as the head coach of Class AAA Peach County where he went 65-16 and won the AAA state championship in 2005 and 2006. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named Gillespie the Coach of the Year both seasons. Gillespie also worked at Peach County as offensive coordinator from 1995-99.
Prior to becoming Peach County’s head coach, Gillespie was the head coach of Banks County in 1999 and 2000 where he went 5-15.
Gillespie is familiar with South Georgia football. He served as Coffee’s running backs coach from 1994-95, and he was Thomasville’s receivers coach from 1992-94.
Gillispie played football at the University of Georgia and graduated from UGA in 1992.
For more, see Thursday's edition of The Valdosta Daily Times.
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