By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Word spread quickly that Larry Harold had resigned as Head Coach of the Brunswick High Pirates.

The Pirates finished the season at 5-5 and came in 5^th place in a five team region. Tie breaker scenarios kept the Pirates out of the playoffs in 2016. Harold finished his tenure at BHS with an 8-12 record and was 3-9 in region contests.

Let me just say that Larry Harold is a friend and a good football coach that came into an unstable situation from the beginning with a divided fan base that has been divided since I was a child. FYI, I get AARP card applications in the mail frequently now.

Part of me feels like I am at fault because I refused to be on the search committee that recommended Harold for job because I felt at that time it was a mistake to replace Victor Floyd, who had just led BHS to the playoffs in 2014 with a freshman QB who set all kinds of records in that season.

So BHS brought Larry Harold and his family into this environment and let him loose and basically said go out and conquer.

The problem is that issues that need fixing surrounding the program were out of Larry Harold’s control and have been for over 40 years. So, when the won/loss record is not up to standard a football coach gets replaced again.

The 2016 Pirates lost 5 games by a combined 14 points and Coach Harold will be the first to tell you that the Pirates had no business losing to Effingham or Bradwell with the talent assembled on that football team.

Glynn Academy was the only team on the schedule that was better than BHS. This team should have been 9-1 and hosting Stephenson on Saturday night at Glynn County Stadium in the playoffs.

Instead, I am going fishing on Friday morning with my friend Scott Spence instead of getting ready to broadcast Pirate Football with Teddy Bishop.

Larry Harold will land on his feet and go on and have a fine football coaching career in a place that is much more stable than Brunswick High School is at this moment in time.

I wish Harold the best. He is a good man who has God as his spiritual foundation and he will be successful. He has handled adversity with class and dignity that only comes from above.

Here are the issues I see surrounding Brunswick High Football and it has nothing to do with players and Maurice Freeman, Victor Floyd, or Larry Harold.

It has to do with bitterness, jealously, race, and selfishness all of the symptoms of our broken society that have been in place for all 49 years of Brunswick High’s existence. Let me explain and only a Brunswick High graduate will understand what I type below.

Black and White are not the BHS school colors Blue and Gold are. When Brunswick High School was opened in the late 1960’s and integration happened Risley High School was closed and Risley’s school population was split between Glynn Academy and Brunswick High.

This myth that BHS was an extension of/or new Risley High School is wrong, but that has been the perception in Glynn County for 50 years.

That is wrong, get over it people. I have said this all along that Brunswick High’s worst enemy over the years have been our own people. That has to change and change now.

I am tired of running off football coaches because the Pirate fan base is divided along racial lines for the benefit of selfish people in the community who use division and fear to divide and control people.

We maybe should play Michael Jackson’s Black or White every Friday Night over the PA system to help heal these deep-rooted divisions.

Little Brother Syndrome. Many BHS fans and alumni have this little brother syndrome and go around and say that Glynn Academy gets the biggest and best of everything, but stick their head in the sand when they drop their kids off at a new state of the art $57 million dollar Brunswick High School on Altama Avenue every morning during the school year.

Let me let you in on a little secret, Brunswick High leads the all-time football series with Glynn Academy 37-34-2 and has lost 3 straight years to the Red Terrors.

New baseball field, new school, new track and the list keeps going on. Get over it people. Glynn Academy’s campus floods when we have over two inches of rain. Stop making excuses for your own insecurities Pirate fan base.

John Willis is retired. If I died tomorrow I would want Coach Willis to speak at my funeral. I love the man. He was my football coach and was Brunswick High to me.

Coach Willis led Brunswick to the State Title game in 1999. Pirate fans have to stop living in the past as it relates to football.

Vince Dooley will never walk the sidelines again in Athens. Phil Fulmer is not coming back to Knoxville, and John Willis will not walk the Pirate sidelines at Glynn County Stadium again, but he can be a great ambassador for Pirate Football moving forward.

Victor Floyd never should have been fired. Victor Floyd’s track record of winning, putting kids in school, and discipline brought a lot of pride and respect to BHS from around the state, and this community.

December 17^th, 2014 should have never happened and the program has not been the same since. Biggest mistake the Pirates have ever made with our football program was letting him go.

This article may ruffle some feathers but I am tired of having it eat at me. The BHS football job is potentially a gold mine, but Brunswick fans have to get out of their own way first and leave their fear and insecurities behind. You cannot have a bright future until you stop living in the past.

Go Pirates and Thank You Larry Harold for your work here.