Gillespie is Valdosta's man

By Adam MacDonald
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA �" Christmas came a couple of days early for Wildcat Nation.
Valdosta High, the winningest high school football program in the country, has hired a new head football coach in Rance Gillespie.
The 40-year-old Gillespie becomes the seventh head coach at Valdosta in the last 63 years.
“It's a great honor to be the leader of this program,” Gillespie said. “I can't wait to get in here and go to work, meet these kids and get in this community and be involved. To be involved in all those things, to be the leader of the Valdosta Wildcats, is a great, great honor.”
A search committee recommended to the Valdosta Board of Education that Gillespie was the right man for the job. After meeting in executive session for about an hour on Wednesday, the Board approved the hiring of Gillespie with a 6-2 vote.
“I can say, without question, this young man was head and shoulders above other interviews,” Valdosta City Schools superintendent Dr. Bill Cason said. “There were probably three we could have been happy with, but Coach Gillespie was well received by the committee, has the knowledge and has the experience. That's why he ended up here (Wednesday) as the person selected.”
After the vote, Gillespie was introduced to a small, but hearty, crowd of Wildcat fans, and addressed them for the first time as their new 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 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 the 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 was Thomasville's receivers coach from 1992-94.
Gillespie was a walk-on defensive back at the University of Georgia, and graduated from UGA in 1992.
Not all of the Board members agreed with the decision to hire Gillespie. Willie Jones and vice chairman Warren Lee, the only black males on the Board, did not vote in favor of Gillespie. Lee declined to comment.
Gillespie referred questions about the executive session to Cason, but because the Board met in executive session, Cason said he couldn't comment on what was said behind closed doors.
Despite having only a handful of coaches over the past 60-plus years, the Valdosta coaching job has been unstable recently. With Rick Tomberlin on the way out, Gillespie will be Valdosta's fourth head coach since 2002. Still, he doesn't seem deterred by the alarming turnover rate.
“I know the expectations here are extremely high,” Gillespie said. “To have the opportunity, I think the risk-reward merits that.
“I don't know that people in Valdosta see Valdosta the same way that people from the outside see Valdosta. There have been challenges over the last couple years, and those types of things, but I think the opportunity to be one of the 15 men in the history of the program to lead the program, that's a great honor for me.”
Even though Valdosta has its new head coach, there are still details to iron out. Cason said a decision hasn't been made yet if Gillespie will also serve as Valdosta High's athletic director. Decisions also have to be made surrounding other football coaches currently under contract at Valdosta, and scheduling. The Wildcats only have four region games next season, so they need to find six non-region opponents.
“I think that process has been started,” Gillespie said. “It will be a challenge, there's no question, to try and get a schedule together. That's something we have to go to work on pretty quick, and get that in place.”
Gillespie also said he understands the plight of the coaches who coached under Tomberlin.
“I was in a situation very similar to those guys,” Gillespie said. “Those guys will be treated on a professional level, and we'll sit down and see where all that stuff goes.”
Gillespie takes over a Valdosta program that has missed the playoffs two of the last four years, and only won one playoff game under Tomberlin. Gillespie was brought in to change that.
“All I can do is implement the things I know, and try to do the things that I've done that have worked previously,” Gillespie said. “As far as changes, I don't know what's in place now. I'll have to get in there and see that. So for me to say right now, ‘This will change, this will change, this will change,' I can't accurately answer that right now.”
Gillespie did, however, give a glimpse into what Wildcat fans will see when their team takes the field next fall.
“No. 1, we're going to play good defense and play great in the special teams,” Gillespie said. “That's one thing that I think I did grow in a bunch over the last three years in college football. Of course, from those standpoints, that's where we're going to start. I'm an offensive guy. My background has been in offense. We're going to start off with a couple of base things we'll do year in and year out, and then after that, we have to find the talent we have on that given year, and expand or tailor things according to those kids.”
Gillespie will take over a team in 2010 with a roster that is littered with seniors, including tight end Jay Rome, quarterback DaShay March, defensive back Malcolm Mitchell, linebacker Jermaine Holmes and defensive end Jarquez Samuel.
“I'm not going to make any comments personnel-wise, but I do know that this is an extremely talented class,” Gillespie said. “I know this upcoming senior class is especially talented, so I'm really excited to have the opportunity to work with these kids coming up.”