It may not appropriate to use a baseball analogy in a football story but here goes anyway – talking about hitting a home run! The Appling County Pirates have landed one of the winningest football coaches in the state. Earlier today, the Appling County School System announced that Tucker Pruitt will be the next head coach for the Pirates.
Coach Pruitt has been the head coach at Fitzgerald since 2017. His teams have made the playoffs every year of his tenure. Since 2020, he has made the semifinals twice and the finals three times, winning one state title in 2021 and region titles in 2020 and 2022.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, only Pierce County, one of Appling’s fiercest rivals, has won more games in South Georgia than Fitzgerald this decade. Statewide, the AJC notes that only Buford, Prince Avenue Christian, Hughes, and Milton have won more games statewide than Pruitt’s Purple Hurricanes have.
Pruitt inherits an Appling team that experienced some success during the 2024 season. However, last week, the GHSA notified Appling that the program had to vacate all 10 of its wins because of using an ineligible player. After the GHSA’s ruling, the school system let head coach Jordan Mullis know that he would not be returning as head coach. Mullis had been at Appling since 2021 and had made the semifinals every year except 2023. Last season, the Pirates were 10-4 and won a region title, the third of Mullis’s tenure.
Pruitt has coached at Coffee when his father, Robby Pruitt, was head coach of the Trojans. He has also been on staff at Lowndes and at Valdosta. During his career, Pruitt has been a part of two state titles – 2016 in Valdosta and of course the 2021 title in Fitzgerald.