Nelson leaves MA for Southside Gadsden coaching job

Gary Nelson has been an assistant and head football coach at Montgomery Academy for eight seasons but is leaving for the job at Southside Gadsden. (STAFF PHOTO)

By TIM GAYLE

After four years as the head football coach and athletic director at Montgomery Academy, Gary Nelson thought it might be a good time to move his family to another part of the state.

Nelson accepted the job as head football coach at Southside High in Gadsden, leaving behind an eight-year mark as assistant coach and head coach of the Eagles and becoming the only coach in the history of the football program to have never experienced a losing record during his tenure as head coach.

“For several years now, we have talked about what we want to do with my career, our lives, our kids, what community do we want to live in,” Nelson said. “We had opportunities the past couple of years that we resisted and then, ultimately, we started talking about all those things again this year and looked to this (Gadsden) area of the state as an attractive area for us. 

“We saw the Southside position was open and despite some struggles they’ve had on the field, it’s a really strong community and supportive area.”

Nelson’s career as a football coach includes four consecutive seasons of seven or more wins, perhaps never reaching a plateau desired by some athletic boosters of the program, but never experiencing the losing seasons endured by Ware Tatum, Spence McCracken, John Tatum and Anthony McCall during their tenures. He accomplished a 30-16 record and four consecutive playoff appearances despite a coaching staff comprised largely of volunteers, something that won’t be an issue at 6A Southside.

As an athletic director, he managed a budget that has provided for no upgrades to facilities during his tenure and required him to replace his girls soccer coach and tennis coach in the past two months, both of which came off of state championship seasons. 

“Gary has lived out the mission of our school by becoming a leader who has had a broad impact on our students and our school as a whole,” Montgomery Academy headmaster John McWilliams said in a statement released by the school. “I am deeply appreciative of all that Gary has done and is doing for our school, and I wish him the best as he continues his career beyond MA.”

Nelson insisted it was a family decision and neither difficult challenges facing him as a head football coach nor outside influences by boosters toward the athletic director had any influence on his decision to leave.

“I felt supported and there’s great leadership,” Nelson said. “I feel like I could’ve been there a really long time. This (opportunity at Southside) is attractive to me, from a football perspective, because it’s a chance to be in a bigger program and an opportunity to build a year-round program. 

“I have loved that job and that school. Look, if I go up there and fall on my face and crash and burn, I’m going to put my hat in my hand and drive back to Montgomery and ask John McWilliams if he has a job for me.”

While Nelson’s teams provided an exciting product on the field in his four years as the head coach, his teams failed to produce a winning record against any Capital City Conference opponent and never made it past the second round of the state playoffs. His best year came in 2017 as the 9-3 region champions reached the second round of the playoffs before losing to a powerful American Christian team. 

His Montgomery Academy teams were often overmatched and won against more physical teams, an obstacle he will face at Southside-Gadsden. Still, the opportunity to lead teams with bigger coaching staffs and more personnel was appealing, he said. 

“I don’t want to move my children a lot once they’ve started school,” Nelson said. “So the way I was kind of looking at this is we have opportunities to go somewhere before our kids start school or then when they’ve gotten a little older. They haven’t started school yet, so now was as good a time as any to accept a new challenge.”

Montgomery Academy is the second area school to find itself without a football coach, with Nelson’s announcement coming just three weeks after Trinity fired head coach Barry Loyal. Loyal is among those candidates that could be considered by McWilliams as a possible replacement for Nelson.

“As far as a recommendation goes or anything like that, I have some thoughts that I’ve shared with Mr. McWilliams,” Nelson said. 

Nelson added he is uncertain on a timetable for his departure as the Montgomery Academy administration works on hiring a new athletic director and head football coach.