Tierce to lead GMC Prep football in '24
Feb. 8—Gavin Tierce has known he wanted to be a football coach since he was about 8 years old.
Now at 24 he has his first opportunity to lead a high school football program. Tierce on Wednesday was announced as the next head coach for Georgia Military College Prep School.
Currently in his first year at GMC, Tierce served as the Bulldogs' offensive line coach this past fall under former head Bobby Rhoades. Rhoades resigned after only one season, citing "fit" and a wish to pursue other opportunities as his reasons. He's now an assistant at Appling County High School in Baxley.
Toting a young, inexperienced roster, GMC football finished the 2023 campaign with a 3-7 record and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. The momentum created from three consecutive postseason appearances stalled. Tierce wants to get things rolling again.
A native of Dade County in northwest Georgia, Tierce is also a history teacher and head wrestling coach at GMC Prep. Next academic year he'll transition to the school's weightroom instructor position vacated by Rhoades and continue serving in the wrestling role.
Asked what he feels he brings to the table, Tierce said, "Relationships with kids more so than anything. My connection with our kids, the staff, and the GMC family in general I feel like has given me a bigger advantage than anything else. I'm a relationships-first kind of guy. If your players don't care about you and don't care about each other, you're not going to be very successful. That connection and family unit ideal has been lacking in the football program. That's what we've got to change. If we jump that hurdle first, I feel like everything else will fall into place."
The new Bulldog head coach played linebacker in high school, but has spent his coaching career focused on the offensive side of the ball. In 2020 he was on the offensive staff at Valdosta High, one of Georgia's meccas for the sport, and also received his associate's degree from Valdosta State University while he was there.
"Coach [Rush] Propst, coach Shawn Sutton, coach Gary McPeek, who's now at Eastern Kentucky, they all took me under their wing," Tierce said of his time at Valdosta High. "They taught me more about football in that six-month span than I would have ever dreamed of knowing. I learned a tremendous amount about the game from an organizational standpoint from coach Propst and from a schematic standpoint from coach Sutton and coach McPeek."
Following that stint, Tierce returned to his home Dade County and worked on the staff there, handling various offensive line, run game coordinator, and strength and conditioning duties. He obtained his bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Walden University before coming on board at GMC Prep at the start of this academic year.
Tierce will begin working towards his master's at Georgia College & State University this May. He'll be in a position similar to his players, balancing school work while trying to win football games.
"I understand that this is probably the most unique football job in the state of Georgia," Tierce said. "GMC is unique in general. I understand what it's going to take to be successful here. It's definitely not the norm. The things our kids have to do academically are far and beyond anything you'd find at a regular public school. Our kids are taking college-level classes and sometimes have four to six homework assignments every single night. Our kids are held to a standard that's different from basically anywhere else in the country. Coming in, I've accepted that."
Recently-named GMC Prep Athletic Director Rusty Courson shared reasons why Tierce was the right candidate for the role.
"Gavin fits the mold for GMC," Courson said. "He's young, he's energetic, and he's got longevity. We were looking for someone that we know is going to be here more than three years. A lot of the applicants didn't match that mold we were looking for. We can tell by the increase in numbers in the wrestling program that the kids love him. The coaches love him. Everybody had nothing but positive things to say about him. We opened it up to everybody, but at the end of the day he knows GMC. He knows what our standards are. We really got lucky that we found somebody who was already here."
When considering applying for the job, Tierce said he consulted with his fellow remaining football staffers in Bo Kilby, Kyle Redmond, and Howard Pounds. They had his back, and Tierce expects to have them all standing on the sideline again this fall.
"Our core group of guys is going to stick it out together," he said.
Looking ahead to the 2024 season, Tierce is anxious to see returning players' growth over last year.
"A lot of freshmen and sophomores had to start because that was the position we were in," he said. "I am excited to see the jump our kids make. It's our job to get them there through development in the weightroom and on the field."
Tierce will call plays and also make significant changes to the offense. Some he indicated included simplifying the scheme to suit the players, moving the quarterback under center more and implementing option concepts. GMC's offense operated out of the shotgun spread last year, averaging only 18 points per game with Rhoades calling the plays.
GMC Prep's 2024 football schedule is almost completely put together. Five region foes are built in. Four of the remaining five non-region opponents are in place. The Bulldogs will play Brentwood for a third consecutive year and also face Taylor County (6-5 last year), Crawford County (1-10), and Atkinson County (0-10). Riverside Military was on the slate but backed out due to shifts in its region, leaving one matchup to be filled by GMC Prep's new head coach.
