David Roman
Roman, David: Tucker High School
Roman was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2024.
David Roman’s legacy as a coach extends far beyond any title or championship ring he’s received.
As a longtime baseball and football coach at Tucker High School, then an assistant at Peachtree Ridge High where he coached multiple sports, Roman’s influence left a positive mark that his pupils still cherish.
Roman was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024.
“David Roman was my high school baseball and football coach and also was a teacher at Tucker,” Gainesville High School baseball coach Chan Brown told USA Today back in 2015.
“He is the reason I got into this job.”
Roman stepped away in 2022 after 35 years of coaching. His stops included Mount Zion-Carrollton for two seasons, 19 years at Tucker as the head baseball coach before he left for Peachtree Ridge in 2007.
His greatest success on the baseball diamond came at Tucker where he guided the Tigers for 19 seasons and won more than 300 games. He also was an assistant coach in several other sports before he felt like his body told him he needed to slow down.
Longtime Tucker football coach Bill Ballard was leaving for Peachtree Ridge and he wanted Roman to go with him.
“I needed a change in my life and that was a good opportunity,” Roman said. “It gave me some breathing room.”
Roman didn’t take over at Peachtree Ridge as the head baseball coach, but he was an assistant in a variety of sports from football to baseball to wrestling.
It was at that time that he met his wife Christine, so serving as an assistant trimmed his workload so he could spend more time with his family.
Roman, a devoted Christian, helped mentor football standouts like Bradley Roby and Cameron Heyward, then 2015 second-round draft pick Nick Neidert who was taken 60th overall by the Seattle Mariners. Roby, even after helping Denver to a Super Bowl victory in 2016, took time to return to Peachtree Ridge and singled out Roman for his positive influence.
When Roman retired, Peachtree Ridge posted on Twitter, “The man, the myth, the legend! David Roman is retiring after 35 years of serving students and athletes! Congratulations Coach Roman!”