From the Eagles to Gryphons, new wings for Farriba, joining the ACE staff of Keith Hatcher
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
When Mark Farriba announced his resignation as head football coach at Stratford last December, he didn’t say he was done with football.
“I just don’t want to be head of anything anymore,” he told The Sports Report, among the hints he was keeping his ears open.
Those ears heard some good and inviting things from across town.
What started picking up steam a week or so ago on the local grapevine became official Wednesday morning with Farriba joining the football staff at ACE with new head coach Keith Hatcher.
“He and I had been having some conversations, and he needed some ime to think about the direction he wanted to go,” said Hatcher, who is 3-5 against his newest assistant as head coach at Mount de Sales. “But I wanted him here since day one.”
Moves continue at ACE
The addition of Mark Farriba to the ACE athletic staff is only the latest staff shuffling for the Gryphons.
Thomas Darrah was promoted to take over the boys basketball program, succeeding Matt Chambless, who left after one season for the same job at Tattnall, as well as athletics director.
Darrah is in his third year at ACE, and has coached boys and girls basketball as an assistant. The Newnan graduate started his college career at Alabama as a quarterback – was on the roster of the 2009 national title team - and ended it at Jacksonville State playing football and baseball.
His father played basketball at LaGrange and grandfather at Austin Peay.
Christy Donaghy is the new volleyball coach, moving up from the junior high level. She succeeds Jordanna Carter Perry, who coached for a year and is stepping away for family reasons.
Donaghy played high school volleyball and junior college volleyball in Maryland, and has coached in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Ryan Walker remains as head girls basketball coach, but she’s giving up head track duties after the season, and new assistant football coach Travis Reese will take over. Reese has joined the program from Howard, where he’s also head track coach.
Athletics director Josh McLendon was pretty happy, too.
“We’re fired up to have him,” said McLendon, also the school’s head softball and baseball coach. “He will be a great addition to what we are building here at ACE.”
Hatcher took over the ACE program within a week of Farriba’s announcement. He succeeded interim head coach Sam Zanders, who was promoted to that spot after the school dismissed Jason Stephens, ACE’s first head coach, following the season-opening 48-0 loss to FPD in the Macon Touchdown Club’s Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic at Mercer.
ACE’s most prominent athletics hire lasted less than three weeks on the open market over parting ways with Stratford at the start of the month. The offer was made last week.
“My wife, we really decided (last) weekend,” said Farriba, 65. “We felt like we wanted to talk it over, pray about it for another few days make sure we were all on board.
“And we are. It was easy.”
Hatcher was an athlete at Mount de Sales when Farriba coached at FPD. They went from acquaintance to friends when Hatcher returned to coaching and took over the Cavs’ football program before the 2014 season.
Farriba will be the assistant head coach, offensive line coach, and teach physical education.
“Mark and I have been very close,” Hatcher said. “He’s been a great mentor for me since I moved back to Macon and got into head coaching.”
Farriba has a 214-134-3 record, twice at FPD and twice at Stratford with a stint at Prince Avenue Christian, covering 30 seasons overall as a head coach.
He went 78-51-2 at FPD, from 1985-90 and 1992-96, 95-57 at Stratford, from 2003-06 and 2013-2021, and 42-26-1 at Prince Avenue Christian from 2007-2012.
Farriba has one GHSA and five GISA region championships, and the 2004 Class AAA GISA state championship on his resume. In 30 years, he had nine losing seasons, and cracked the 10-win mark eight times.
Farriba graduated from Stratford in 1974 after a three-sport, All-State career, and went on to play football at Georgia, where he was part of the 1976 SEC title team.
He was inducted into the Stratford Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame three years later.
Farriba joins Travis Reese, Thomas Darrah and Brad Lord, with Hatcher planning and hopingto add at least one more.
Reese was Hatcher’s first outside hire, the Howard defensive coordinator taking the same role at ACE.
Darrah and Lord remain on the staff. Darrah was promoted to offensive coordinator after Stephens’ dismissal, and teamed with Zanders to lead the Gryphons to a 4-5 season, third-place finish in GHSA Region7-A Public, and the program’s first playoff spot.
They lost 50-10 to No. 5 Schley County in the first round of the playoffs.
Hatcher said the Gryphons finished last year with about 40 players and are currently operating with about 60 players on the roster.
They’ll start spring practice in May, and Farriba will be part of it, even though he doesn’t officially start until June 1.
“We’re building a foundation,” Hatcher said. “There’s a million things, and I want to do them all at once.”
And he’s added some experienced help.
“We wanted to be at a place where I felt like I was really needed,” Farriba said. “Keith really made me feel like he wanted me.”
