COLUMN: The story of building a state champion that is Pike Road

Pike Road players celebrate the 2021 Class 5A state championship at Protective Stadium on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

BIRMINGHAM -- Dreams have to start somewhere and for Patrick Browning, they started with an idea in 2016.

That’s when he was asked to lead a junior varsity program at Pike Road, forming a football team that would later become a varsity program in the east Montgomery County town.

Browning bought his uniforms from a supplier who would give him multiple color schemes at a discounted price. The school system could afford it, the townspeople could afford it, but when you’re starting from scratch, you’re never really sure about those first expenditures.

The varsity players would dress in the Georgia Washington Junior High fieldhouse (yes, it was outdated, not air conditioned and looked a lot like a junior high football team’s fieldhouse, but it was better than nothing). The team practiced on the old junior high football field, tucked away in a corner of the field under the trees.

There was nothing that gave any indication of what was to come.

On Thursday night, as the four-year-old varsity program celebrated the Class 5A state championship at Protective Stadium, Browning was asked about those early days and whether he, the only varsity football coach the program has ever known, felt like a proud papa.

“It’s unbelievable,” Browning said. “Our guys have worked extremely hard the past six years. Everybody has a goal to win a state championship, but the things you have to do every day to get better is what separates a good team from a great team. And this team really bought into the idea of practicing hard each week to get better each week.”

Browning asked a few weeks ago if his team looked like a state championship contender. Sure, it did. It did in 2019 in its second year as a Class 3A program when it completed a 10-0 regular season but the Patriots were still learning how to win. It did in 2020 when the Patriots, now a 5A program, completed another 10-0 regular season but didn’t know how to handle adversity when it struck in the second round of the playoffs at UMS-Wright.

And it did in 2021, he was told, but adversity would rear its head in the second round again, against St. Paul’s Episcopal. Would they be ready this time, he was asked? They were, simply because the players (and coaches) were better prepared and more mature in facing the challenges this year. 

Consider this: Pleasant Grove needed just 17 points on Thursday night to hit the hard-to-obtain mark of 600 points in a single season. They got 14. A team that averaged 45 points per game never posed an offensive threat on Thursday night.

“Every year is different,” Browning said. “Every game has its own life, every team has its own life. We had an idea going in, both offensively and defensively, what we would be good at and that changed as the season went along. Our defense molded into what it is because we finally realized what best fits our personnel and we start repping it and got better and better at refining those details.”

No person exemplifies that development more than Khurtiss Perry, the highly recruited defensive standout who showed flashes of brilliance at times during a career at Park Crossing and this year at Pike Road, but only in the last few weeks has he shown his true potential.

“He was eager to get better,” Browning said. “The growth he had from Week 0 to Week 15 has been tremendous. He’s gotten where he’s not just explosive off the ball, but he’s explosive with his hands and his eye discipline. He truly now looks like an elite player.”

Pike Road has come a long way in four years. Think you could do better as a coach? Talent will only take you so far in a championship hunt, especially in four years. Hall of Fame coach Wayne Trawick, who won a lot of games at Central-Phenix City, had been coaching for more than three decades when he won his first state championship with the Red Devils in the early 1990s. When asked how he felt after beating West End for the 6A title, he responded, “Lucky.” Then he went on to explain how that 1993 team (which almost lost to Carver in the first round of the playoffs) wasn’t the best team he ever fielded. “It takes luck to win this thing,” he said, holding the blue championship trophy.

If not for an Iverson Hooks’ interception return in the final minute of the second round, St. Paul’s -- and not Pike Road -- might be holding that blue trophy today. We know who the best team in the state is, but we’re all smart enough to realize the best team doesn’t always win.

And Pike Road? From humble beginnings as a junior varsity program in 2016 and 2017 to playing without a home field in 2018 to having one of the best high school stadiums in the state in 2021, the Patriots finally tasted success when the trophies were passed out on Thursday night. 

“It’s an extremely unique experience,” Browning said. “I think I was a little naive when I took the job. I underestimated how much work it was going to be but we never let any challenge be an excuse. We saw it as an opportunity.” 

There have been rumblings throughout the season, throughout the past couple of years, about Browning’s job security. In a sport where patience is a lost virtue and understanding is rarely achieved, it seemed like any time things didn’t go well for the Patriots, it was the head coach’s fault. A little more patience, or a little more understanding, seemed in short order. Over the past three years, Browning has compiled a 38-2 record but it often seems like the two losses are more of the conversation than the 38 wins.

But that 38th win on Thursday night was certainly something special. A Pleasant Grove team that has reached the finals four consecutive years, only to come up short each year, was ground up and cast aside by a Pike Road football team that proved it was the state’s best team, at least in 5A if not in every classification. 

That takes talent. And team chemistry. And luck. And depth. And leadership. And coaching.  

“I love Pike Road,” Browning said. “I love living in Pike Road. I love the people in Pike Road. I just think that our community is so unique in that it is so brand new. There really isn’t a measuring stick to compare it to. I’m just proud to be the head coach and be a part of this first state championship in football. It’s an amazing accomplishment for the town and, again, I couldn’t be more proud for the kids.”