Lowndes hires Thomasville’s Zach Grage as Head Football Coach

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WCTV) - Tuesday the Lowndes County School Board voted to approve Thomasville Head Coach Zach Grage as the new Head Coach of the Vikings. This coming just two weeks after former head man Jamey Dubose stepped down to be closer to his family. After the vote, Grage was introduced to Vikings fans in an assembly at Lowndes High School.

“The thing I’ve always told our kids is ‘look I’ve always challenged you guys to go be the president, go be the CEO, don’t just be happy working for somebody else, don’t be happy where you are,” said Grage of the tough decision to leave THS. “You built a fire, you worked really hard to build your fire and now you can choose to sit back on it and relax or jump in it and build it again.”

Grage had been the head coach of the Thomasville Bulldogs since the 2016 season with the ‘Dogs advancing to the 2A GHSA State Championship in 2021. Prior to his time in the Rose City, Grage served as Head Coach for one season at Gilmer after a six year stint as an assistant at Colquitt County.

“We called it a 7A program in the way we ran it,” Grage remarked of his Bulldog program. “We had over 100 kids in that small school and we still had the same first class mentality, the same practice mentality so to be able to come here and have those resources and have the people that are willing to do anything and everything that’s what I’m most looking forward to.”

The Vikings new head coach will of course now be responsible for LHS’ success or failure in the annual Winnersville Classic against arch-rival Valdosta who are helmed by longtime friend and colleague of Grage, Shelton Felton who served on the same staff with Grage at Colquitt under Rush Propst.