On Friday night, former Coffee Trojans head football coach Robby Pruitt reached a milestone no other high school football coach in the country has accomplished. He won his 200th game in Florida, giving him at least 200 wins in two different states: 209 wins in Georgia (Fitzgerald, Warner Robins, and Coffee) and 200 in Florida (Union County, University Christian, and Williston).
Pruitt’s Williston Red Devils defeated Ocala’s Trinity Catholic Celtics 49-21 in Ocala for his 200th win in Florida. Ironically, last season, Pruitt notched his 400th career win when the Red Devils beat the Celtics in Williston.
“I didn’t even know about this record until last year. A guy from MaxPreps called me at the end of the year. He said, ‘Coach, you’re four wins away from 200 wins in Florida. If you’re able to do that, nobody in the nation’s ever won 200 games in two states, let alone two states like Georgia and Florida.’ So I didn’t know about it until last year. I had never even thought about it,” said Coach Pruitt on Sunday afternoon.
According to MaxPreps, 48 other coaches have won at least 400 games. Nine have coached in two different states. One of those coaches has a chance to duplicate Coach Pruitt’s feat. According to a story in Gainesville’s Main Street Daily News, Tommy Knotts, currently coaching at Dutch Fork, South Carolina, won over 300 games in North Carolina and has 181 wins at Dutch Fork.
Pruitt wasn’t sure the Red Devils would get the win this past Friday. Trinity Catholic is a good team and Williston was depleted due to injuries. Pruitt’s starting wing back, two defensive linemen, and the first- and second-string center were out. Quarterback John Jazikoff played but was limited due to an injured knee. “He couldn’t do any running and throwing off his right knee hurt. But we were able to play better than I thought we would. We jumped on them quick and it kind of snowballed from there,” said Pruitt. The Red Devils led 28-7 at halftime and outscored the Celtics 21-14 in the second half to win 49-21 – and etch Coach Pruitt’s name in the history books in the process.
Even though Pruitt has been coaching for 42 years and accumulated an impressive list of significant accomplishments, he doesn’t have any plans on slowing down. At 62 years old, he still loves coaching and wants to be on the field on Friday nights. “I just enjoy coaching. I’ve never thought about records. I knew I was getting close to 400 because all these people started calling me and asking about it. But I’ve never really thought about that, to be honest. I just love coaching. I feel good. I’ve still got my health. I want to keep going,” he said.
Coach Pruitt was at University Christian (Florida) from 1984-1992, where he won four state titles. From 1993 to 1999, he coached at Union County, where he won three consecutive state championships (1994-1996). During that time, his teams won 52 straight games, at the time a Florida state record.
In 2000, Pruitt took the head coaching job at Fitzgerald. He left in 2003 and went to Warner Robins but returned to Fitzgerald in 2004, where he remained until 2011. In 2012, he came to Coffee, where he led the Trojans to a region championship in 2015, and appearances in the quarterfinals three times, semifinals once, and finals once.
In Georgia, Coach Pruitt played for two state championships: 2000 in Fitzgerald (a 6-0 loss to Swainsboro) and 2017 in Coffee (a 28-21 overtime loss to Lee County).
When Coach Pruitt went to Williston in 2022, the Red Devils were a program in peril. Wins were hard to come by; the year before he arrived, Williston was 1-8. Since Pruitt took over the program, the Red Devils have gone 10-1, 11-1, and 8-5 (semifinals). This year, Williston is 4-1. The Red Devils lost their first game to in-county rival Chiefland 36-35. Since then, they’ve won four in a row.
Coach Pruitt was inducted into the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He won 83 of his 409 games at Coffee.