Riverside announces return of Downs to lead football program

GAINESVILLE -- Riverside Military Academy announced Monday that Gary Downs is returning to the school to take over as head football coach.

Downs began his high school coaching career with the Eagles in 2003, serving as running backs coach. Downs went on to serve as offensive coordinator for Riverside from 2004-06 -- a period during which the Eagles won the 2005 Georgia Independent Schools Association state championship and played in the GISA semifinals in '04 and '06.

Downs will look to turn around a Riverside program that has not finished with a winning record since 2008, going 1-9 in 2011 and 2-8 in 2010. The Eagles reached the first round of the GHSA Class AA playoffs in 2009, finishing 5-6. He will be Riverside's fifth football coach in seven seasons.

Downs has coached both football and track for the past nine years with a brief stint as an Atlanta Falcons' coaching intern and one season as running back coach with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe. For the past five years, he has been the offensive coordinator and head coach of track and field at Mount Pisgah Christian School.

Downs played prep football at Spencer High School, while his father was stationed at Fort Benning in Columbus. He was ranked in the top 50 prep football players in the State of Georgia and top 100 prep football players in the Southeast before accepting a football scholarship to attend North Carolina State University where he majored in Pre-Med.

Downs earned Academic All-ACC honors and was an All-ACC selection as running back for N.C. State in 1993 and finished third all-time in rushing touchdowns and 10th in rushing yardage for the Wolfpack and was drafted in the third round by the New York Giants in 1994. Downs was a special teams leader for the Atlanta Falcons during their 1998 NFC Championship season. He played seven seasons with three different NFL teams and retired in 2001.

Coach Downs lives in Duluth, Georgia with wife Tanya, daughter Kameron (13), and sons Joshua (10) and Caleb (6). Kameron is an elite soccer player on Georgia's Olympic Development team. Joshua and Caleb play multiple sports including football, and they combined for 70 touchdowns this past season.