County football standout Jeremiaha Gates takes his shot as North Marion head coach

On Friday night, North Marion football will officially enter the Jeremiaha Gates era.

In front of him lays a path to redeeming the Colts from a 1-9 season.

The opportunity is a homecoming of sorts for the first-time head coach. His mother's side of the family is from the Citra area.

"North Marion is a place where a lot of my family graduated from," Gates said. "I think everyone from my mother's side graduated from North Marion. In high school, if we weren't playing at Trinity Catholic, North Marion would be the place I was going to watch."

Gates didn't have the "love at first sight" moment as some football players have had. Being a quarterback on flag football teams as a young player gave him a foundation, but he didn't play organized ball until the seventh grade.

From there, he learned the game in a crash course fashion. Already 205 pounds as a freshman, Gates spent time as a defensive tackle, linebacker, safety, running back, and quarterback during his state championship-winning career at Trinity Catholic, which garnered 33 collegiate offers.

"Not actually having a position caused me to learn the entire game so that the game would slow down for me at any position," said Gates, who went on to play running back at FCS Samford University in Alabama. "I could start eliminating things, and it made me look better than I actually was. I started becoming a coach before I became a coach."

Gates's desire to coach football was born out of the relationship he built with the staff at Samford. Seeing the way they molded him made him want to do the same.

"If I can give the information that I've accumulated over the years back to a kid before I got it, their chance of success will be a lot quicker," Gates said.

His coaching journey began as a graduate assistant at Concord University in West Virginia. He spent the following year coaching receivers at Florida Tech, and it led to an opportunity of a lifetime: playing professional football in Germany.

After two seasons, he was back in the coaching ranks, this time as a high school assistant at Belleview under coach Michael Kelly. As recently as last year, he was defensive coordinator with Trinity Catholic. He'd still be there, preparing to take over his alma mater, if not for the North Marion opportunity.

Gates picked up more knowledge as he took advantage. He learned how to get the most out of his players from SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee. Coastal Carolina offensive coordinator Travis Trickett taught him the ins and outs of reading a box in Gus Malzahn’s RPO system. SMU assistant coach Garrin Justice taught him line play. Coaches Steve Englehart and Jayson Martin, of Presbyterian University, gave him Air Raid 2.0 concepts.

"I got blessed to run into a lot of great coaches," Gates said. "I've had a lot of good mentors as a coach."

His days as a running back have shaped how he wants his teams to approach the game. Gates and his staff want to keep it simple and play with intensity.

The first year after a coaching change is all about laying a foundation. Those first bricks are used to pave the path for the Colts to become a team no one wants to play. As his team tries to create that reputation, Gates will take pride in every step.

"Being able to come back to Marion County and take a program like North Marion, a historically prominent powerhouse in central Florida, and be chosen as the one to get the program back in the direction in which Colt country is used to happen," Gates said. "I applied for other jobs, and I would have been honored to take those jobs, but I feel like I landed in the right spot."

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: County football standout Jeremiaha Gates takes his shot as North Marion head coach