By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

          Time alone is a rarity for a coach.

          For a father, husband, and coach.

          Mark Gainous was getting plenty of time alone, making a drive pretty much every day to and from Milledgeville and Perry, the family moving from the former to the latter when wife Tasha Gainous took over as Perry’s girls basketball head coach.

          The 80-minute daily commute is no more, Gainous resigning as Georgia College’s head men’s basketball coach to take over the Perry boys program.

          Gainous told the Bobcats Wednesday afternoon.

          "Making the decision to leave Georgia College is obviously a bittersweet moment for me, but one I feel is the best decision for me and my family," said Gainous in a Thursday morning release by Georgia College. "Spending 19 years at one place is extremely special. Working as an assistant coach for 11 years for my mentor and friend Coach Terry Sellers prepared me to lead this program.

"This past season, I had the most fun I have ever had coaching in my 20-plus seasons as a coach. It was the closest team and most unselfish group I have ever had the privilege to work with."

          The move reunites him with his wife Tasha on a full-time basis. She took over as the Perry head girls coach last summer, moving from John Milledge. With two young children, the decision was made to move the home base closer to Perry.

          Gainous replaces a longtime Perry coach, Reggie West, who resigned effective at the end of the season.

          West has been Perry’s boys head coach since 2017-18, moving over from the girls program when Brett Hardy’s contract wasn’t renewed. He told Perry administrators that this would be his final season as a varsity basketball coach.

          Perry’s boys went 15-12 in 2021-22, 8-5 in Region 1-4A, with seven losses by single digits.

          “I want to leave so the next coach, when he comes in, he doesn’t have to build it from the ground up,” West said. “Only lost three seniors off that team. You got about seven juniors that’ll be seniors coming back. So he’s got a really good team coming back.

          “It’s not a situation where the cupboard is bare.”

          Gainous departs on very much a high note, the Bobcats recording their first 20-win season since 2009-10 under former head coach Terry Sellers, with Gainous as an assistant.

          "Mark Gainous is a fantastic basketball coach and an even better person," Georgia College athletics director Wendell said in the release. "I am grateful for the work he has done and the outstanding culture he has created within our program.

“He is the most loyal person you will ever meet and I will miss his contagious positivity and our daily morning visits. We talk about family every single day and I am happy that he and Tasha, Abe and Annie Grove will be in the same zip code once again on a daily basis." 

          Georgia College finished third in the Peach Belt regular season, going 13-5. But it was surprised at home in the first PBC tournament game, 83-79 by Lander. The Bobcats got an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament, losing 100-65 to Lincoln Memorial in the first round of the regional in Augusta.

          The cupboard isn’t bare in Milledgeville, either.

          The only Bobcat listed as a senior is redshirt senior Jordan Thomas, who had a huge year, earning first-team all-conference after setting the Georgia College mark in scoring, settling in at fourth all-time in the Peach Belt with 2,219 points.

          He scored 21 points last week in the Reese’s Division II all-star game in Evansville, Ind.

          Gainous is a graduate of Cairo (1995) and Georgia Southwestern (1999), coaching at Shorter and Georgia Southwestern before joining the Georgia College staff in 2003. He was an assistant for 11 years before succeeding Sellers in 2014-15. He leaves with a 115-99 record in eight seasons.