Since the Pace Academy football team’s official start in 2009, the team has quickly accumulated success in the Atlanta-Metro Area. Nine years ago, former University of Virginia star and Super Bowl Champion, Chris Slade, joined the staff and built the program from the bottom up, helping the team consistently reach the playoffs from 2014 to 2021 and even a Class 2A State Championship in 2015. In his time at Pace he had an all-time winning record of 59-42, as well as sending over 35 players to the collegiate level and multiple players to the NFL. However, after nine years, Coach Slade made the decision to step down as a high school coach and joined his alma mater UVA’s defensive staff where he will be coaching at the division one level.
After searching for a head coach for months, and reviewing the overwhelming amount of applications for the job, Pace announced Nick Bach as the head football coach and game day administrator. Most recently, Coach Bach comes from the Gilman School in Baltimore where he flipped the program around, increased the roster size by 81% and progressively improved the team’s record each year he coached there, as well as reinstating the JV team. Furthermore, Coach Bach is no stranger to Georgia, he coached at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville where he helped to rebuild their program in the three years he was there, winning many accolades such as region 6-7A Head of Coach of the Year and Gwinnett County Head Coach of the Year. Outside of coaching high school ball he has coached at every level of college football, from Juco to Division 1, 2 and 3, at schools like the prestigious Johns Hopkins University and the University of Buffalo. At Buffalo, he took part in developing the great Khalil Mack who is now an NFL superstar. Prior to coaching, he was a player at Canisius and Buffalo State as he is from Buffalo.
As for Pace Football, Coach Bach’s priorities are getting to know the school community, building the roster, prioritizing academic excellence while aiming to win state championships. His best attributes have been described as being a passionate coach with his coaching philosophy centered around the players and the program. Furthermore, with the majority of the staff accepting jobs elsewhere, other coaches will be stepping up and accepting greater coaching roles, such as strength and speech coach, Sekou Walton, taking over the safeties and Coach Kev Johnson as the recruiting coordinator and associate head coach as well as offensive line coach. Also, other coaches have been named such as, the Walker School’s former head coach, Gary Nelson as our new offensive coordinator and former UCF player Micah Anderson as an assistant offensive line and tight-ends coach. With this, the team will be looking to turn over a new leaf, with new goals, values, rules, and traditions. The team is more ready than ever with all the players excited and ready for the future of Pace football, as they prepare to come out as a new team on the 5th of August against Wesleyan in a scrimmage where they look to prove themselves.
As Coach Bach finishes up his teaching contract in Maryland, he will officially be taking over on June 1, however, he frequently visits Atlanta until then. He is a friendly and approachable guy, so if you see him in the halls anytime soon he welcomes you to come up to him and ask him any questions or just have a conversation. If you are interested in the team and potentially playing, feel free to send him an email or text anytime, the team would love all the numbers they can get! Go Knights!