Blazers’ Gast to coach Clinch County

Published 3:10 am Tuesday, December 6, 2005

VALDOSTA — A lot of people around the state know about Clinch County High football and baseball. Nick Gast wants them to know about Panther basketball, too.

Gast, a four-year starter at Valdosta State and a two-year graduate assistant with the Blazers, has been hired as Clinch County’s new basketball coach, taking over for former coach Roger Metts.

Gast, who will complete his graduate work this spring at Valdosta State, sent resumes to local high schools and was a name mentioned for the Lowndes and Clinch jobs. Clinch became a reality for Gast when he was contacted by the high school after longtime Clinch football and baseball head coach Cecil Barber left for Jeff Davis. Metts, who was also an assistant on the Panthers’ football squad, will join Barber at Jeff Davis.

In his first head coaching position, Gast’s challenge will be reviving a once-powerful Clinch County basketball program. Clinch’s last state title came in 1989, two years after winning its first championship.

“In the past they’ve had great basketball teams, but recently they haven’t,” Gast said. “The basketball coach has been (primarily a) football coach and has just done basketball in the off-season.”

The 2003-04 Panthers went 9-11 overall and lost to Central-Talbotton in the first round of the Class A state playoffs in Pearson.

One of the main problems for Metts, who Gast says has been very helpful in the transition, was the overlap in football and basketball seasons. With the Panther football team making deep runs into the playoffs every season, Clinch basketball has been forced to start its season several weeks late.

“They’ve got a great football team, so you know the athletes are there and the potential is there,” Gast said. “(But) every one of (Metts’) kids played football and played into December.”

Gast says he plans to offset the problem by working with his players heavily in the summer. He’s already lined up a few summer camps for the Panthers.

Gast, an intense player on the court and a member of the 1,000-point club at Valdosta State, said he hopes to transfer his get-after-it style of play to his new team.

“We’ll play hard,” Gast said. “That was the kind of player I was. I’ll preach that style of play.”

The administration at Clinch believes Gast can do the job and so does Gast’s former boss, Valdosta State head coach Jim Yarbrough, who Gast says has been instrumental in his development as a head coach.

“Nick is a determined person,” Yarbrough said. “He’s got a great plan for success and I believe in a fairly short period of time he will build a tradition at Clinch.

“He’s a basketball person. He loves it. (Clinch) saw that and saw the success at Valdosta State and they took a chance on someone who took a chance on them. He brings passion and energy and I think it will be a very good fit.”