Mark Gainous - Men’s Basketball (1996-99)

Mark Gainous enters his third season as the head coach of the Men's Basketball team at Georgia College. During his second year in charge of the Bobcats, Gainous steered a major turnaround. 

In the 2014-15 season a young Bobcat team went 9-19 and won the PBC's Team Sportsmanship Award. In 2015-16 the Bobcats and Gainous stunned the rest of the PBC on their way to an 18-11 overall record and a Peach Belt Tournament berth.

Gainous' success in year two earned him Co-Peach Belt Coach of the Year. The Bobcats swept the Peach Belt end of season awards, as Terrell Harris (2013-15) was named Player of the Year and Isaac Thomas earned Co-Freshman of the Year. Harris earned All-America and All-Region status as well as a spot in the D2 Senior All-Star Game. The Bobcats got their first PBC Elite 15 Award in 2015-16, as Evyn Smith had the top GPA among the teams in the PBC Tournament.

Gainous patrolled the sidelines for the Bobcats for 11 seasons as the  assistant men's basketball coach. As an assistant, Gainous helped the team to a 177-131 (.575) record, including four 20-win seasons. The Bobcats picked up a PBC Regular-Season title in 2005-06, and earned three trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a Sweet-16 run in 2006.

Gainous has helped coach 12 student-athletes to All-PBC status, including PBC Player of the Year and All-American Honorable Mention Jeremy Mayweather (2004-06), and 2015-16 PBC Player of the Year and All-American Honorable Mention Harris. 

Gainous is the eighth head coach in Georgia College men's basketball history.

He came to Georgia College from Shorter College in Rome, Ga. where he served as an assistant coach under head coach Ricky Williams for three seasons, also helping coach the golf team and serving as the Sports Information Director.

Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant for the women's basketball team at Georgia Southwestern State University under head coach Kip Drown in Americus, Ga. where he earned his Bachelor's degree in 1999 and Master's in 2000, both in Business Management. He also completed a Master's in Physical Education from Jacksonville State University in Alabama in 2003.

Gainous graduated from Cairo High School in 1995 and was a three year letterman in basketball at GSW under head coach Randolph Barksdale where he twice earned academic all-conference honors. 

He is married to the former Natasha Stotler, a graduate assistant coach for the Georgia College women's basketball team from 2007-09. They had their first child, Abram Mark, in 2010 and their second, Annie Grove, in 2014. They reside in Milledgeville.

 

Thank you to Georgia College Sports Information for their contribution to this piece