BY CLIFF SMELLEY
He was part of a glorious past.
Now, he’s a part of the future.
Robby Pruitt, who coached Union County High School to three consecutive state championships in football in the 1990s has been named the Tigers’ new head coach.
The Telegraph-Times-Monitor has been unable to reach Pruitt for comment, but a press release prepared by Superintendent of Schools Mike Ripplinger, said, “Union County is thrilled to welcome Coach Pruitt back home and looks forward to an exciting future for Union County football.”
Pruitt, who resigned as Williston’s head coach the day before his hiring at UCHS was announced, has a 413-101-1 record over 42 years. During his seven years at Union (1993-99), the Tigers went 79-10, winning state championships in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
The Tigers, who were undefeated in 1995 and 1996, won a then state record 52 games in a row under Pruitt.
Pruitt won four state championships and was a state runner-up once in nine seasons at Jacksonville’s University Christian, where he coached prior to his arrival at UCHS. In Georgia, he led two teams to state runner-up finishes: Fitzgerald and Coffey.
This past season, Pruitt, who’s a 2000 Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame inductee, became the first-ever coach in the U.S. to win at least 200 games in two different states.
“Coach Robby Pruitt’s career reflects a commitment to hard work, excellence and the development of both players and coaches,” Ripplinger said via his press release. “These values have defined his success at every stop along his hall-of-fame career.”
During his previous stint at UCHS, Pruitt led the Tigers to the playoffs in all of his seven seasons. In his second year, Union had its best regular-season record since 1977, going 9-1. The Tigers added four more wins in winning their first state title, defeating Chiefland 50-6, Baker 34-33, Jefferson County 43-21 and finally Bishop Verot 21-0.
The 1995 team went undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 1974. Union opened the postseason with a 42-12 win over Newberry, followed by a 28-12 win over Jefferson County and a 30-13 win over Baker before defeating LaBelle 28-3 in the championship game.
Union’s defense shut out all of playoff opponents before reaching the 1996 state-title game. The Tigers defeated Hamilton County 41-0, Chipley 28-0 and Williston 29-0.
The Tigers then won the state championship by defeating Frostproof 67-30, racking up 564 yards of offense and 33 first downs.
Union went 2-1 in the postseason in 1997 and 1998, with the playoff loss in 1997 ending the 52-game win streak.
Union lost in the first round of the playoffs in Pruitt’s final season.
Pruitt left UCHS to take the head-coaching job at Fitzgerald High School in Georgia. That team was a state runner-up in Pruitt’s first season, losing 6-0 in the championship game.
After three seasons at Fitzgerald, Pruitt left to take the job at Georgia’s Warner Robins High School, but he spent only one year before returning to Fitzgerald, where he coached for eight seasons.
Pruitt’s final 10 years in Georgia were spent at Douglas’ Coffee High School. He led Coffee to a state-championship game in 2017, where his team lost 28-21 in overtime.
Next for Pruitt was a return to Florida, where he took over a Williston program that went 8-31 in the four seasons prior to his arrival. The Red Devils went undefeated in the regular season in Pruitt’s first year and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Pruitt led Williston to the playoffs in all four of his seasons there. The Devils went 38-9 with a postseason record of 4-4 while he was there.
