Feb. 18, 2003
David Wilson, formerly Georgia Tech’s director of football operations, has moved to the coaching staff as special teams coach and recruiting coordinator, Tech head coach Chan Gailey announced Tuesday.
Butch Brooks, a member of the Tech athletics staff since 1998 as director of high school relations, takes over Wilson’s former position as director of football operations. Wilson replaces Tommy Raye, who resigned after one year as special teams coach to take a position in private business.
Wilson came to Tech in January of 2002 after five years at Mississippi State, including the last year as the Bulldogs’ Coordinator of Football Operations. He also spent two years (1999-00) as Mississippi State’s tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator and two years (1997-98) as administrative assistant after arriving in Starkville in 1997. During his time there, the Bulldogs won the Southeastern Conference West title in 1998 and played in three bowl games.
Wilson, 52, served two one-year stints at Florida State in 1996 and 1992. The Seminoles finished 11-1 and ranked second in the nation both seasons he was on the staff, participating in the 1993 Orange Bowl and the 1997 Sugar Bowl.
Wilson has also made coaching stops at Nicholls State, where he served as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator in 1993, and at Troy State, where he was the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator from 1983-85. He spent two years as the head coach at Pensacola (Fla.) High School in 1994-95 and was an assistant coach on the high school level in Florida from 1986-91.
A native of Atlanta who attended Albany (Ga.) High School, Wilson played football at Troy State from 1974-77. He is married to the former Tammy Groce, and the couple has a daughter, Holly, and a son, Austin.
Brooks, 56, came to Tech in 1998 after spending 18 years as head football coach, athletics director and head golf coach at Washington-Wilkes High School in Washington, Ga. During that time he compiled a football record of 144-55, a .723 winning percentage, earning berths in the state football playoffs in 13 of his last 17 seasons at Washington-Wilkes.
In 1985, he was named the Atlanta Touchdown Club AA Coach of the Year, and in both 1991 and 1997, he was named the state AA Athletic Director of the Year.
During his time at Washington-Wilkes he coached the football team to six region championships and four appearances in the state championships while leading his golf teams to eight region titles.
Prior to his tenure at Washington-Wilkes, Brooks served at Valdosta High School as an assistant football coach (1972-80) and head baseball coach (1974-80). While head of Valdosta’s baseball program, he was named coach of the year in Georgia in 1977 and 1978 and led the team to four regional championships and the state AAA title in 1978. His overall baseball coaching record was 127-33, a .793 winning percentage.
Brooks is a native of Whiteville, N.C. and is a 1972 graduate of Valdosta State University, where he later earned a master’s in Administration and Supervision.
He is married to the former Kathy Zelenka of Pascagoula, Miss., and the couple has three children, Rookie Gage, Farrah Gage, and Laura Norton, and three grandchildren.
