Athletic director leaves his mark on Eagles sports

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — Gary Sylvestri, a family man with a strong faith in God, is winding down after more than a decade as athletic director at Milton High School, where he oversees one of Fulton County’s largest sports departments.

Sylvestri, aka Coach Sly, started coaching football at Milton in 2010. Two years later, he was promoted to athletic director. Along the way, Sylvestri also helped brand the school.

“We made it the ‘M,’ and the empire,” he said. “Everyone knows us for that now.”

Milton’s athletics department, which has 23 varsity sports, 90 coaches and around 1,050 athletes, has racked up major milestones during Sylvestri’s tenure.

In 2018, the Eagles won their first football state championship when they defeated the Colquitt County Packers in the finals. That game was also the first time since 1995 that a team outside of South Georgia and Gwinnett County won in the state’s highest classification. Milton is a 6A school playing 7A, Sylvestri said.

But Milton has claimed a total of 20 state championships with eight runner-up finishes across multiple sports, including football, baseball and basketball, while Sylvestri has led athletics. Sylvestri also emphasized the ties he has with teams that don’t do well.

“I think people forget about that part of it,” he said. “Failure is the foundation to success, right?”

‘The grind’

With an Italian background, Sylvestri is tan, weathered from days on the field, and stocky. He sports a collection of tattoos on both arms, including one of two hands alluding to “The Creation of Adam.” A tattoo on his left hand says, “One love,” paired with Rastafarian colors.

When he retires in June, Sylvestri said he’s going to continue traveling to Jamaica and spend more time with family. Some are up North, and he has grandkids around the country he’ll get to visit. His daughter Danielle lives in

Virginia, and his son Nick lives in Utah. But he’s not going to stop working. He serves as the associate pastor at a local church, a role he had when he lived in South Florida. He also plans to start up a podcast called “Behind the Bench,” where the first guest will be James Hines, the executive director of the Georgia High School Association.

“I’m not going to sit down at 60 and just sit by a palm tree,” Sylvestri said.

Sylvestri said slowing down “the grind” is going to be a shock, considering his work routine. As athletic director, he carries a host of administrative tasks related to buses, clubs, custodians, facilities and parking at the school.

He also stays involved with coaching. Sylvestri put one hat down in 2016 when he stopped coaching football but soon picked up another, training the girls lacrosse team in CrossFit in its off seasons.

School spirit moves through his family, too. Sylvestri’s wife, and his best friend for more than 30 years, works in the football office at Milton High School. His other two children work at Milton as well.

Sylvestri’s son Vincent, affectionately “Vinny,” is the running back coach, and his daughter Dominique is a community-based instruction (CBI) teacher, working with students who have special needs. She also used to coach junior varsity soccer at Milton.

A time in uniform

Sylvestri moved to Milton from South Florida, where he worked as a police officer. After the night shift, he’d take a nap then go off to coach football at inner city schools. He first started coaching in 1983.

“My wife, God bless her…” Sylvestri said. “She put up with a lot.”

On the force, he learned to be a “chameleon,” jumping from call to call, which served him in athletics leadership.

“When you’re dealing with parents or you’re dealing with students … you’re dealing with different personalities, different cultures,” he

See COACH, Page 14