Mount de Sales brings back longtime coach Robert Slocum to lead Cavaliers
Slocum, a Mount de Sales graduate who coached the Cavaliers for 23 seasons, will lead the football program again beginning in the 2026–2027 academic year.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Mount de Sales Academy announced Thursday that former championship coach Robert Slocum will return to lead the Cavaliers football program for the 2026–2027 academic year as the school celebrates its 150th anniversary.
According to a news release from Mount de Sales, Slocum, a member of the Class of 1974, will serve as head football coach and advancement associate.
Slocum previously led the Cavaliers for 23 seasons, compiling a 134-134-2 record with one state championship and two region titles, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. His final season as head coach at Mount de Sales was in 2013.
He is responsible for 138 of Mount de Sales’ 366 all-time wins since the program began in 1961, accounting for more than a third of the school’s victories.
Following Slocum’s retirement, Keith Hatcher took over as head coach in 2014 and went 46-39 in eight seasons, including a region championship in 2019, according to the historians association. Gray Yates later replaced Hatcher in 2022 and went 8-34 over four seasons through 2025.
Slocum played football at Mount de Sales under longtime coach Mike Garvin and was part of the school’s GISA championship teams in 1970, 1971 and 1973. As a running back, he led the 1973 state championship team with 1,236 rushing yards on 159 carries.
“I have never really left Mount de Sales,” Slocum said in the release. “I was just sitting on the back row observing, so to speak. I didn’t expect to be back on the sideline after ten years, but I’m thankful for the opportunity. Mount de Sales is family to me and when family reaches out, you respond.”
Slocum attended Savannah State on a football scholarship before returning to Mount de Sales, where he coached multiple sports including track, tennis, baseball, football and basketball.
He also served as athletic director beginning in 1993 and retired from that role in 2015.
In the late 1990s, Slocum helped lead the development of Cavalier Fields, the school’s 77-acre athletic complex. The field house there was named in his honor in 2014.
Slocum was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
“I am extremely excited for the next chapter of MDS football under the guidance of Coach Robert Slocum,” athletic director Kenny Epps said in the release. “I have seen firsthand the impact he can have on a young man’s life, both on and off the field.”
Epps said Slocum’s experience in the GIAA and his history of guiding student-athletes to the collegiate level make him a strong fit to lead the program again.
