BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Former Union County High School football coach Buddy Nobles passed away at the age of 53 on Jan. 23, 2020, succumbing to the cancer he was diagnosed with last summer.
Nobles, who was both an assistant and head coach at UCHS, was the head coach at Georgia’s Irwin County High School the last six seasons. The school won its first state championship since 1975 this past season, defeating Marion County 56-14 to cap a 13-0 season.
It was Nobles’ first state title as a head coach.
His coaching career began at his alma mater, Jacksonville’s Temple Christian School. He was hired at Jacksonville’s University Christian in 1989, where Robby Pruitt served as head coach. Nobles coached at the middle school and junior varsity levels before moving up to the varsity level as offensive line coach in 1991.
Pruitt, who won four state championships at University, accepted the head coaching position at UCHS in 1993. He offered Nobles the position of defensive coordinator, which he accepted.
Union won three straight state championships (1994-96) while Nobles was on the staff. His defense allowed an average of 15 points per game in the 1994 postseason and an average of 14 points in 1995. The state championship games those years had the Tigers beating Bishop Verot 21-0 and LaBelle 28-3.
The Tigers won the 1996 championship by defeating Frostproof 67-30. Those 30 points were all Union allowed in the postseason, having won its first three playoff games by scores of 41-0, 28-0 and 29-0.
Nobles stepped away from coaching when Pruitt resigned after the 1999 season. One year later, he helped coach the Lake Butler Middle School team. In 2002, he accepted the head coaching position at UCHS.
The Tigers went 31-27 in five years under Nobles. His most successful seasons occurred in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Union went 2-8 during Nobles’ first season, but played for the Class 2B state championship the following season in 2003. The Tigers, as their district’s runner-up, won two road playoff games, defeating Lake Highland Prep 23-12 and Dixie County (the champion of their district) 20-14. Union punched its ticket to the state title game by defeating Florida High 47-40 at home.
The Tigers’ impressive run, which followed a 6-4 regular season, ended with a 21-6 loss to Pahokee in the state championship game.
In 2004, Union posted its first undefeated regular season since 1997. The Tigers went 10-0 before winning their first two playoff games, defeating Wildwood 44-13 and Dixie 33-22. Union’s postseason ended with a 23-22 loss to Pensacola Catholic — one game shy of making it back to the state championship game.
Union went 7-4 in 2005, going 1-1 in the playoffs.
In all, Nobles had a 6-3 postseason record while at the helm of the Tigers.
Nobles resigned after the 2006 season to take a position working under Pruitt, who was then the head coach at Fitzgerald High School in Georgia. Nobles followed Pruitt to Coffee County High School before accepting the head coaching position at Irwin County, where he became the school’s winningest coach with a 67-13-2 record.
It was this past summer when Nobles went to the doctor after experiencing weakness and a loss of appetite. A large tumor was discovered in his stomach, with a biopsy revealing that the tumor was cancerous and that the cancer had spread.
Nobles, in a Sept. 12, 2019, Georgia Public Broadcasting Sports interview, admitted he was scared of the unknown in regard to how his body would respond to treatments and how the cancer would affect him. However, he took courage in one fact.
“I’m not scared of my eternity,” he said. “I know my security in Jesus Christ.”
