Fellowship Hires Pair of Assistant Football Coaches

has hired former Georgia State assistant coach Ryan Zimmerman as its defensive coordinator and Dan Parsons as the Paladins backs coach.

Ryan Zimmerman

Zimmerman, a native of Gainesville, brings nine and a half years of coaching experience to FCS. He joined the Georgia State University program in 2009 after spending five years as a high school coach at his alma-mater West Hall High School (1999-2002) and East Hall School (2005). Those teams reached the playoffs in four out of five years in three different classifications (AA/AAA/AAAA). Zimmerman helped coach and develop more than 20 collegiate signees from those schools.

Under the tutelage of legendary coach Bill Curry, Zimmerman coached
the inside and outside linebackers and special teams at GSU. Zimmerman
helped coach a defense that produced two NFL players from the 2011
team, the program’s second campaign. Zimmerman's two-man linebacker
unit combined for 209 tackles in 2011, 73 more than the previous
season.

As a special teams coach, Zimmerman coached 2010 Third-Team
All-American and Fred Mitchell Award Finalist Ian Vance. He also
coached two different pre-season CFPA watch list punters, including
Matt Hubbard.

Zimmerman, who attended Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga., earned a
bachelor’s of arts degree in history from Georgia State. He worked in
the investment industry and for his family-owned business prior to
joining the Panthers program. He resides in the Brookhaven area of
Atlanta with his wife, the former Brooke Greer, and attends Peachtree
Road United Methodist Church.

Dan Parsons

Parsons, a 2012 B.S. in education graduate of Bowling Green State University, was a four-year letterman pitcher for the Falcons baseball team. During his BGSU career, the native of Columbia, Maryland, was a three-time Mid-American Conference Eastern Division Champion and a two-time regular-season Mid American Conference Champion as a middle reliever. Parsons, who grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, had the opportunity to play for the Lake Erie Monarchs in the
Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.

Parsons graduated from Strongsville High School in 2007, and graduated Cum Laude from Bowling Green with a cumulative GPA of 3.53. He was among the 50 inaugural members of the National Athletic Honor Society at BGSU, (Chi Alpha Sigma), a fraternity for student-athletes who attain a 3.4 cumulative GPA or higher. He has earned Georgia and Ohio Teaching Licenses and is qualified to teach Reading, Language Arts and Science in grades 4-9.

Parsons attends Piedmont Church in Marietta.