Rockledge Raiders Interim Coach Tyrone Giscombe Promoted to Head Football Coach
Rockledge High School removed the interim tag from Space Coast Sports Hall of Famer Tyrone Giscombe and officially named him the next head football coach of the Raiders in an announcement on Monday.
“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you’ll never change the outcome! Raider Pride,” Coach Giscombe told Space Coast Daily when asked about the promotion.
Coach Giscombe replaces former Raiders Head Coach Wayne Younger who moved on after nine seasons and ended his tenure with a 64-35 record.
Giscombe was named interim head coach back in March and was a 2019 inductee into the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame after being an integral part of the lives of many student-athletes, and volunteered more than 12,000 hours at three different area schools.
Since 2007, Giscombe has mentored and coached student-athletes who have been on teams that have won a combined six state titles, nine district titles, 10 regional titles and three Cape Coast Conference titles in track.
Coach Giscombe was the sprint and jumps coach in track and field and defensive backfield coach in football for Cocoa High School.
Giscombe coached Darion Williams to a state championship in the long jump and the 4×100 in track and field in 2008, and the long jump in 2009. He also coached soon-to-be NFL rookie and former Florida Gator standout Chauncey Gardner to the 100-meter and 200-meter state titles in 2015.
In 2016, another of Giscombe’s athletes, Jeremy Lawson, went onto to win the triple jump state crown.
Giscombe moved over from Cocoa High School to Viera for the 2018 football season to coach the wide receivers. His players finished second and sixth in the state in receiving yards, with both Shamar Mohr and Sean Atkins being named first team players.
Giscombe’s path to the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame is one that required a lot of lesson learning and mentors making sure he learned from his mistakes and Tyrone having the self-discipline to essentially see his obligations and responsibilities through at a young age.
Raised by his grandmother, Giscombe was expelled from high school and lived on the streets, but with the help of people that cared about him, made up his mind that this wasn’t the life he wanted, and he did something about it.
Giscombe returned to Cocoa High School where principal Lori Bacus helped him stay focused. He would also return to playing football, basketball and running track.
He graduated from Cocoa and attended junior college in Minnesota, but after the birth of a son, reevaluated his priorities and returned to Brevard County to be a father and begin the process of becoming a Hall of Fame mentor and coach.
LEARNING LIFE’S LESSONS
Giscombe knows he didn’t reach this point in his life without the love and support of people like his grandmother, Virginia Wimes, who passed away in April 2016, or his brother Antonio Williams and his mentor and Godfather, James Folston, who was inducted in the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
He also learned a lot from people like the “House Man” at the Joe Lee Smith Recreation Center where he hung out when he could not attend school.
Giscombe certainly learned valuable life lessons from his uncle, Reggie Hannah, a 2017 Space Coast Sports Hall of Famer who died in 2015.
Giscombe is especially grateful for his wife, Odeika, and his two sons, Jamarcus, 11 and Tyrus who turned one in April.
They are his inspiration to continue to do what he feels he was meant to do in life – keep others from making the mistakes he made and realize their full potential, on and off the field and track.
While Giscombe’s accomplishments and story are far from over, what is certain is the Hall of Fame impact he has made on those he has mentored and coached.
