CLIMAX – Providence Grove moved quickly this summer to hire a new girls’ basketball coach.
Johnathan Gainey is the new coach, filling the vacancy caused by the departure of Dylan Eppley.
Gainey previously coached girls’ teams at Winston-Salem Prep and Winston-Salem Reynolds. He also was the boys’ basketball coach at his alma mater, Kernersville Glenn.
Eppley left Providence Grove after three seasons to become the boys’ basketball coach at Southern Alamance.
“I felt like this was a move that I needed,” Eppley said of a chance to expand his professional experiences.
Eppley’s Providence Grove teams had a 26-37 record, including 6-18 last season.
Eppley, 30, said he embraced his coaching opportunity with the Patriots as it was his first role as a varsity head coach. Former athletics director Calvin Brown, who became the football coach at Asheboro last winter, was supportive, he said.
“Calvin sold me on Providence Grove,” said Eppley, who also was on the football coaching staff. “He built an athletic department that was very connected.”
Eppley goes from one school nicknamed Patriots to another with the same nickname. He’ll be in a rebuilding phase at Southern Alamance, which is moving from Class 4-A to Class 3-A and is coming off a three-year stretch with an 18-44 record. That includes last season’s 6-19 mark.
