The Apalachee Wildcats have found a new head football coach to lead them into the future as the school board has named and approved Kevin Saunders as the sixth head coach in the football program’s history.
The former Duluth defensive coordinator will be replacing former head coach Mike Hancock, who stepped down from his position last month as he is dealing with post traumatic stress from the fateful shooting last fall that took the lives of four members of the school, including defensive coordinator Ricky Aspinwall. Hancock had served as the football head coach at the school for the last two seasons.
Saunders takes over a program that hasn’t won a game in three seasons, accumulating an 0-28 record over that time span, looking to lead the Wildcats into a brighter future.
Holding a 191-113-2 record as a head coach, Saunders has over 40 years of coaching experience ranging across Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee.
Saunders will take over in the next school year and will also teach physical education at Apalachee.
The new Apalachee head coach is credited with turning around the Gilmer High School football program, as the Bobcats were 0-30 from 2016-2018 before Saunders stepped on campus.
Saunders spent two seasons at Gilmer, beginning in 2019 where he and the Bobcats accumulated a 4-6 record in his first season and a 3-6 record in his second season before Paul Standard took over the position.
Before his time at Gilmer, Saunders spent four seasons at Pebblebrook from 2015-2018 and spent a season as the head coach at Cross Keys.
From 2009-2013, Saunders was the head coach at Gretna in Virginia, winning a state championship with the program in 2011, accumulating a 13-2 record during that time.
Prior to his time in Virginia and Georgia, Saunders coached at Sequatchie County in Tennessee where he spent two seasons and recorded a playoff appearance with the Indians as well.
Having already proved that he is capable of rebuilding a school’s football program, Saunders will have to lead the Apalachee Wildcats out of the turmoil that they have faced the last couple of months and into new beginnings.
Saunders will be looking to get Apalachee back to the postseason for the first time since 2021 and its first region title since 2009.
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