BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Williston High School Head Football Coach Robby Pruitt, who led Union County to state championships in 1994, 1995 and 1996, became the first high school football coach in the U.S. to win 200 games in two different states.
Pruitt, who has 209 victories in Georgia, picked up win number 200 in Florida when Williston defeated Trinity Catholic 49-21 on Sept. 26.
The coach, who became the Florida High School Athletic Association’s youngest Hall of Fame inductee in 2000, was hired as the head coach at Union in 1993 after winning four state championships at Jacksonville’s University Christian. In his second year, the Tigers won the first of their three consecutive state titles, defeating Bishop Verot 21-0. Union defeated LaBelle 28-3 in 1995 and Frostproof 67-30 in 1996.
Union’s 1995 and 1996 championships capped undefeated seasons. The Tigers would win 52 games in a row in the 1990s, which was a state record at that time.
Pruitt left Union after the 1999 season, moving to Georgia and taking the head job at Fitzgerald High School. Fitzgerald was a state runner-up in Pruitt’s first season, losing to 6-0 to Swainsboro in the championship game.
After three seasons at Fitzgerald, Pruitt took the head job at Warner Robins High School, but coached there just one season before returning to Fitzgerald. He coached there eight years before leaving to go to Coffee High School in Douglas, Georgia. Pruitt took Coffee to the state championship game in 2017, losing 28-21 in overtime to Lee County.
Pruitt returned to Florida, taking the head job at Williston in 2022. The Red Devils went 8-31 in the four seasons prior to Pruitt’s arrival, but then went 10-1 his first season, losing in the first round of the playoffs.
Williston went 11-1 (1-1 in the playoffs) in 2023 and 8-5 (2-1 in the playoffs) in 2024.
The Red Devils are currently 4-1 this season.
