TIGER, GA – Rabun County High School has named Rabun native and two-time Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) Coach of the Year recipient (2005, 2006) Rance Gillespie as its new head football coach, following the RCHS coaching retirement of Michael Davis on Feb. 27.
The hiring of Gillespie came early Monday, March 10, when the Rabun County Board of Education (BOE) unanimously voted in a called meeting to name Gillespie as the new head coach of the Wildcats.
Gillespie has an extensive football career, which includes four seasons as a player of the University of Georgia (1987-1990); five head-coaching positions; and two stints as offensive coordinator and co-offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern University.
In his 32 years of coaching, 22 have been as a head coach as he compiled a 170-91 record with five region titles and two state championships.
However, Gillespie began everything in Rabun in the early to mid-1980s, playing for the Wildcats as his father, George, did before. The younger Gillespie graduated from RCHS in 1987.
George, also a native of Rabun, recently passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
“This is an emotional moment for me,” Gillespie said when he addressed the Rabun BOE. “I understand the importance of a football program for a school in general. I certainly understand what it means to this community. While it’s not the foundation of a school system, it’s the front porch that everybody drives by and sees. We will take great pride in making sure that everybody sees a positive reflection of our community and our school system, from the way that we get off the bus, play the game and conduct ourselves.”
Gillespie, a 1992 UGA graduate, holds a master’s degree in educational leadership. He and his wife, Claudette, who were neighbors growing up in Rabun, also is a 1987 RCHS grad. The couple has a daughter, Kennedy.
Gillespie said the Rabun football program will be based on three pillars – those being character, academics and football.
“There has to be a blend and there has to be a commitment to all three,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie makes the move to Rabun after three seasons as head football coach of Brookstone School (Columbus, Ga.). He also served as Brookstone’s athletic director.
Prior to taking the position with Brookstone’s Cougars, who advanced to the GIAA Class AAAA state title game in 2023, Gillespie was the head coach at Hart County High School for five seasons, taking the HCHS job in December 2016.
Gillespie’s first position as head coach came when he was hired at Banks County, where he was at the helm for two seasons in 1999 and 2000.
Gillespie was then the head coach for Peach County from 2002 to 2006. Gillespie helped the Trojans win two Georgia Class AAA state championships, earning Coach of the Year honors by the AJC.
RCHS’s new head coach also earned the Coach of the Year honors from the Macon Touchdown Club and Atlanta Touchdown Club.
The Trojans also finished state runner-up in 2003, while advancing to the state quarterfinal in 2004 under Gillespie.
After claiming two state championships in Peach County, Gillespie moved up to the collegiate ranks to serve as the Georgia Southern offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2009. He returned to the position in Statesboro at GS as co-offensive coordinator in 2016, after six seasons as the head coach of Valdosta where he finished with 49 wins.
In Gillespie’s first tenure at GS, the Eagles led the Southern Conference in passing offense (2008, 2009), while ranking 20th nationally in scoring offense and 37th in overall offense in 2008.
“There’s something that I’ve learned and taken away from every stop,” Gillespie told The Clayton Tribune. “It’s culminated to come full-circle to come home and hopefully produce a really good football program. There are things that I think that we can do better and improve (at Rabun). That’s what I want to do, and take the program to a different level.”
Gillespie will be moving into a program that has spent the last three seasons under the direction of former head coach Michael Davis, who led the Wildcats to a 27-10 record, two state quarterfinal appearances and three playoff berths overall.
The upcoming senior Class of 2025 would have been Davis’ first four-year cycle at Rabun.
Gillespie hopes his prior experience and success with other programs will give him some credibility with his new players and establish trust and relationships ahead of this upcoming season.
He said one of the central pieces that football revolves around is establishing relationships. There will be a lot of moving parts early on to get the players and coaching staff heading in the right direction together, understanding what their role is.
“You can’t execute your job if you don’t know what your job is, so that’s going to be important, especially early on,” Gillespie said.
The Wildcats are coming off of a 6-5 season, snapping a 10-year streak of winning at least nine games, eight of those seasons produced at least 10 victories.
Last season also ended a nine-year streak of advancing to at least the quarterfinal of the state playoffs.
“There will be expectations around wins and losses. We won’t shy away from that at all,” Gillespie said. “There will be expectations to perform, but in my mind the football program is about much more than just those expectations. It’s about a positive representation of our school, and not only of our school but the entire community.
“We want to establish a physical brand of toughness of Rabun County,” Gillespie said. “We want to show a relentless effort that (says) the Rabun County community is tough, relentless, plays hard – all of those things that we want to be on display about our county.”
Gillespie reiterated there will be a level of expectations as far as wins and losses go, but he wants to carry much more than wins in a column when putting Rabun on display.
“We present things within our program that prepare our kids for life outside of football, those are the things that I think are ultimately important.”