Williston's Robby Pruitt to reflect on coaching accomplishment after career is over

Accomplishing something no one has ever done is sometimes a path you go down knowing you’re in pursuit of. For Williston (Fla.) head football coach Robby Pruitt, he had no clue he was going to be the first to win 200 games in two different states.

“I didn’t know about it until after last season when someone told me about it,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt had led the Red Devils to a 49-21 victory over Ocala Trinity Catholic (Fla.) back in late September. With the historic win, Pruitt became the first head football coach ever to win 200 games in two separate states as he logged over 200 victories in both Florida and Georgia.

That accomplishment, however, isn’t something the legendary head coach is worried about right at the moment. What is fueling the longtime Florida/Georgia coach is the development of his players and working towards winning Florida’s Rural classification this fall.

“I think the record is something I will look back on when it’s all over,” Pruitt said Thursday night after leading his Red Devils to a thrilling, 15-14 win over area foe Newberry.

“I just haven’t had time to slow down. The next game up, you have to get ready for it. We’re just trying to get better every single week.”

Take Thursday night’s win over Newberry for example, a Williston team that according to the Rivals Industry Rankings, didn’t feature one player with a Division I offer. The Red Devils went up against a Panthers’ bunch that featured three players with Division I offers, but that didn’t stop Pruitt and his bunch from believing they could work towards winning the game.

Heading into the contest with just one loss, a 36-35 decision versus Chiefland to start the season, Pruitt had begun game-planning right after the team’s victory against Gainesville last week. Like he had done hundreds of times before, doing more with less, Pruitt was able to navigate his team that was trailing 14-0 at halftime, to putting them in position to win.

“If you go back to the first half, we were getting four, five yards a run,” Pruitt said of his offense in the first half versus Newberry.

“We just kept turning over the ball. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. I told the guys at halftime, we’re not going to do anything different. You usually can’t fumble the ball three times and win a game like this.”

Pruitt, who has now won 413 times throughout the course of his high school football coaching career, has always thought a play or two ahead and with Williston trailing 14-13 against Newberry with 6:41 remaining in the game, he put faith in his offense to get the two-point conversion needed to take the lead.

Senior running back J’Dyen Manneh, who scored the touchdown proceeding the two-point try, also punched in the go-ahead conversion, giving the Red Devils the lead with less than seven minutes to go. It would eventually be all they needed, as the defense closed the game out with an interception from a player that didn’t play on last year’s Williston squad because of missing summer workouts in senior defensive back Marcus Appling.

Appling returned this past off-season and attended workouts, with Pruitt welcoming the senior back on the team. The senior’s big play at the end of the game helped lift Williston to a 8-1 record and Pruitt’s 413th win.

“I’m proud of Marcus (Appling),” Pruitt said of his game-sealing interception.

“(Marcus Appling) came to our mid-summer program and then after July 4th, I give them that week off, we came back and he didn’t come to one summer workout so I didn’t let him play. He had to sit as a junior. He came out this year, made every summer workout and worked into being a starter and I’m proud of him.”

That kind of story about a player from Pruitt is one of hundreds the celebrated head coach has seen over his time as the lead man at programs like Williston, University Christian (Fla.), Union County (Fla.), Fitzgerald (Ga.), Warner Robins (Ga.) and Coffee (Ga.).

Even after a thrilling one-point win over a talented Panthers’ squad, Pruitt’s focus now turns to KIPP Bold City on Halloween ahead of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) Rural state playoffs, where the Red Devils will have a shot to be the No. 1 seed.

Pruitt last led a team to state championship back in 1996 when he was in Lake Butler coaching at Union County and his current team has as good of a chance to do it as any he’s had at Williston. The Red Devils potential road blocks would be teams like Chiefland and last year’s Rural champion, Madison County.

This won’t be anywhere near the last go around for Pruitt, for those worrying this historic season might be his swan song.

The 63-year old head coach doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon when it comes to coaching as Pruitt pointed out he feels good and still feels like he’s got something to give back to the game of high school football. Needing 87 more wins to reach the exclusive 500-club, which less than a dozen coaches have ever done in high school football history, Pruitt’s focus currently is on the present and not anything related to his own coaching accomplishments.

Pruitt’s focus on the development of players is what keeps his fire burning on a year-to-year basis and though high school football has seen many changes over his time as a head coach, he still loves coaching and the very players that suit up for him on Thursday or Friday nights.

“I still feel good and as long as I feel productive and good, I still feel like I’ve got something to offer,” Pruitt said. “I’ve enjoyed it. I love coaching. I love kids.”

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