Bryant leaves GC for Havelock
Rams looking for only fourth coach in 38 years
SNOW HILL — Greene Central is looking for a new football coach — and only its fourth since 1969.
Jim Bob Bryant, who led the Rams to two Eastern Plains 2A championships and a sterling 42-21 record in five seasons in Snow Hill, was named the new football coach at Havelock on Thursday night.
Bryant’s 42 wins is the most for any football coach since 1960 in Lenoir or Greene County in a five-year span.
“I was just lucky to have some pretty good coaches,” Bryant said. “I was blessed to have a good administration behind me and to have good kids who bought into my system.”
In 2003, Bryant replaced longtime GC coach Spence Grantham, who won 130 games in 22 seasons. Including Bryant and Stewart Smith (66 wins from 1970-80), the Rams have only had three coaches over the previous 37 seasons.
“That speaks tremendous volumes about the football tradition we have here at Greene Central,” GC Principal Dr. Randy Bledsoe said of the lengthy coaching tenures. “We’re cer-tainly going to miss Jim Bob. He has brought a lot of quality football play here. He was a tremendous asset in getting our kids to the weight room and in raising expectations for our program.
“He brought a lot of joy and entertainment to our school through his football program.”
There has been some tremendous turnover in Greene Central’s athletic programs over the past year. Before the 2007-08 academic year began, the Rams named new coaches in boys’ and girls’ basketball, along with baseball.
Bledsoe said the changes were simply cyclical.
“Each situation is individual,” Bledsoe said. “This is a situation where a young football coach sees an opportunity to move up a classification and seeks that opportunity. This is just one of those things that happen in high school athletics.”
The GC principal said the search for a new coach will begin soon.
“Football is a great tradition at this school and we’ve been lucky to have some dynamic football coaches here,” Bledsoe said. “You can firmly believe that we are going to find a great coach to fill that position. There are high expectations for this program. Our kids de-serve the best.”
The Rams finished 8-4 overall in 2007, including a 4-1 record in the EP2A. They won EP2A titles in 2003 and 2005 while Bryant’s teams amassed a 21-4 mark in league games.
Despite all the wins, Bryant said he was most proud of the lasting relationships he estab-lished in his five years in Snow Hill.
“I know most coaches are judged on wins and losses, but I’m happiest that we graduated good kids from Greene Central and helped them get into college,” Bryant said. “I get two to three calls a week from the kids who played for me and that means the world to me.”
Bryant, 35, said he’s excited to take over a Havelock program that has fallen on hard times. After a successful tenure by former HHS coach Wilbur Sasser that ended in 2003, Havelock has endured three straight losing seasons under Charlie Smith.
Smith is also the school’s athletic director and had a hand in hiring Bryant. His hiring will be announced at a press conference at the school at 3 p.m. on Monday, so Smith was unable to comment for this report.
Bryant said Havelock is ready for a winner.
“The principal has made a commitment to football and said he’ll do everything he can to help us reach the goal of becoming a winner,” Bryant said. “They’re starved for wins and that’s what I can bring to them.”
