Football coaching changes: Pace, Providence make hires; Ironside steps down at Worth

Oconee’s Travis Noland took the Jefferson job on Monday. Coffee’s Robby Pruitt, whose 376 wins ranked third among active Georgia coaches, left last week for Williston in Florida, and Riverwood’s Robert Edwards took the job at Washington County, his alma mater.

Pace’s new coach is Nich Bach, best known in Georgia for his time at Mountain View in Gwinnett County, where he was head coach from 2015 to 2017 and led the Bears to their only playoff victory to date. For the past three seasons, Bach was coach at Gilman School in Baltimore.

Pace was 6-5 in 2021 and 59-42 in nine seasons under Chris Slade, who is now on alma mater Virginia’s coaching staff.

Providence Christian, a Class A Private school in Lilburn, named Joe Sturdivant as coach.

A former star player at Parkview, Sturdivant had been head coach at Rabun Gap, a Northeast Georgia boarding school that was runner-up the past two seasons in a North Carolina independent school league. Rabun Gap had five players sign with Power 5-conference programs in December.

Providence Christian hasn’t had a winning season in program history, which dates to 2012.

Ironside has resigned at Worth after two 4-6 seasons. Worth had won only three games in the previous three seasons combined. Ironside is best known for starting Hillgrove’s program in Cobb County in 2006. He won four region titles for the Hawks.

Off season openings and hires:

ACE Charter: Sam Zanders (Hired Keith Hatcher)

Adairsville: Eric Bishop (Hired Jonathan Cudd)

Archer: Andy Dyer (Hired Dante Williams)

B.E.S.T. Academy: Josh Moore

Bacon County: Keith Gosse (Hired Mark Wilson)

Berkmar: Willie Gary

Brookstone: Blair Harrison (Hired Rance Gillespie)

Brunswick: Sean Pender (Hired Garrett Grady)

Coffee: Robby Pruitt

Colquitt County: Justin Rodgers (Hired Sean Calhoun)

Cook: Jamie Rodgers (Hired Byron Slack)

East Paulding: Billy Shackelford (Hired Chris Hirschfield)

Gainesville: Heath Webb (Hired Josh Niblett)

Greene County: Larry Milligan (Hired Terrance Banks)

Greenville: Tyler Wynn

Groves: James Latimore

Harris County: Jamie Fox

Hart County: Rance Gillespie (Hired Cory Dickerson)

Heritage-Conyers: Eddie Snell

Houston County: Ryan Crawford (Hired Jeremy Edwards)

Jasper County: Aaron Pitts (Hired Ashley Henderson)

Jefferson: Gene Cathcart (Hired Travis Noland)

Jordan: Dale Overton

Kell: Brett Sloan (Hired Bobby May)

Kendrick: Andre Slappey

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe: Bo Campbell

Lanier: David Willingham (Hired Tyler Maloof)

Locust Grove: Mark Miller

Lumpkin County: Caleb Sorrells (Hired Heath Webb)

McIntosh: Lee Belknap (Hired Derek Smith)

Meadowcreek: Terrance Banks (Hired Todd Wofford)

Midtown: Kevin Clark

Milton: Adam Clack (Hired Ben Reaves)

Mount de Sales: Keith Hatcher (Hired Gray Yates)

Mundy’s Mill: Dewayne Davis (Hired Earthwind Moreland)

Murray County: Chadwick Brewer

North Hall: David Bishop (Hired Sean Pender)

Oconee County: Travis Noland

Ola: Ryan Angel

Pace Academy: Chris Slade (Hired Nick Bach)

Pataula Charter: Matt Fowler (Hired Daniel McFather)

Paulding County: Van Spence (Hired Umbrah Brown)

Peachtree Ridge: Reggie Stancil

Pelham: Ashton Landing

Providence Christian: Jonathan Beverly (Hired Joey Sturdivant)

Rabun County: Jaybo Shaw (Hired Michael Davis)

Ridegland: Kip Klein (Hired Craig Pritchett)

Riverwood: Robert Edwards

Seckinger: New school (Hired Aaron Hill)

Stratford Academy: Mark Farriba (Hired Chance Jones)

Sumter County: Ross Couch

Taylor County: Robert Yevak (Hired Brandon Byram)

Temple: Scotty Ward (Hired Cory Nix)

Thomas County Central: Ashley Henderson (Hired Justin Rogers)

Tucker: James Thomson

Turner County: Kevious Johnson

Washington County: Joel Ingram (Hired Robert Edwards)

Wayne County: Ken Cribb (Hired Jaybo Shaw)

Westlake: Bobby May (Hired Rico Zackery)

White County: Tim Cokely (Hired Chad Bennett)

Woodland-Cartersville: Tony Plott (Hired Brandon Haywood)

Worth County: Philip Ironside