By: Teddy Bishop

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Unfortunately, when you start talking about the 2025 Brunswick High football season, you have to talk about the last game of the season.

With 1:57 left in the third quarter, and the Pirates trailing Gainesville 42-0, the biggest fight I’ve ever seen in high school football broke out.

Players from both sidelines ran onto the field at Glynn County Stadium. Players shoved players from the other team, helmets were ripped off, and punches were thrown before officials, coaches and police were able to restore order.

To their credit, not all players participated in the melee.

When a shaky calm returned to the field, the officials conferenced for several minutes before calling the game—and rightfully so. The 42-0 score with 1:57 left in the third period  became the final score.

This article is not the place to assess blame—the Georgia High School Association is, of course, dealing with that, and I suspect the consequences will be severe for both schools—and rightfully so.

Unfortunately, the fight distracts from the stellar season that Brunswick High had.

Head Coach Garrett Grady’s Pirates went 9-3 for the season, winning the Region 1-5A championship; the City Championship (beating Glynn Academy); and a first-round playoff game (beating Winder-Barrow 78-30) before losing the second-round game to the Gainesville Red Elephants.

(All of the following stats are unofficial.)

Senior quarterback Grant Moore claimed every passing record in BHS history except for total yards in a season. He needed 99 yards going into the Gainesville game to claim that record but couldn’t quite get there against the rugged Red Elephants defense.

The records for career touchdown passes, career passing yards, and single-game passing yards do, however, now belong to Grant Moore.

Moore also had over 300 yards rushing for the season.

Senior tight end Heze Kent also had an outstanding year, catching 40 passes for nearly 700 yards and 10 touchdowns. Kent has committed to take his talents to a different Gainesville city—the Florida Gators.

Brunswick High’s running backs duo of Josiah Gibbons and Nigel Gardner, both juniors, also had very good seasons. Gibbons ran for over 1300 yards and 12 touchdowns, while Gardner rushed for over 1200 yards as he scored 17 TDs.

Waseem Murray, a junior, had well over 700 all-purpose yards and scored five touchdowns.

Dontre’ Butler, only a sophomore, had over 500 all-purpose yards as he scored six touchdowns.

Defensively, BHS was paced by Braylen Johnson, Adrian Volland and Zi’yan Rankin.  Johnson and Volland were the leading tacklers, while Rankin led the Pirates in interceptions with five.

Rankin and Johnson are juniors, while Volland is a senior.

Senior Aviyon Addison also contributed heavily to the defensive success of the Pirates,.

Senior kicker Landon Ethridge capped off a very good career at BHS, even though he missed some time with a leg injury.

And, thus, the 2025 football season for the Brunswick High Pirates is at an end.

With a lot of talented underclassmen returning next year, BHS figures to be very good again.

The consequences for the fight BHS were severe. The GHSA find Brunswick High $5,000, suspended 41 players from their next GHSA sanctioned event and banned the Pirates football team from the 2026 playoffs.