Tracy Harrod, who coached Bruton High’s football team to the 2009 Division 3 state championship game, has stepped down as the Panthers head coach.
Harrod, who reached the playoffs three times and compiled an overall win-loss record of 41-26 during his six-year stint with the Panthers, announced Tuesday he has decided to become an assistant on the coaching staff at Apprentice School in Newport News.
Athletic Director Richard Onesty said longtime assistant Reggie Jones, who played for and graduated from Bruton in 1988, will replace Harrod as the Panthers’ new head coach.
Harrod said his decision was a difficult one, but coaching at the next level has “always been a dream.” When the opportunity presented itself, it was too good to pass up, he said, especially since he could remain a government and world history teacher at Bruton and not force his family to uproot from the Williamsburg and Bruton High community.
“I had to get the OK from my daughter first,” Harrod said of his daughter Kelcee, a sophomore who plays on Bruton’s softball team. “It was one of those things where I wasn’t really looking, but the job actually came and found me. God blessed me with this opportunity, and once I got the OK from Kelcee, I made the decision.”
Harrod was kindergarten classmates with Jones and later played against him in high school before graduating from Lafayette in 1987. Jones returned to Bruton when Harrod was named the new head coach in 2008 and served as his assistant each year.
Harrod said Jones is more than just a good fit to takeover a program he knows as well as anyone.
“He’s the most deserving,” Harrod said of Jones, who has served as an assistant on and off at Bruton High for the last 29-plus years, beginning in 1993. “He’s been been there longer and has more ties to Bruton than anyone. His son is on the team, all the other players know him and trust him; it’s a perfect fit.”
Before coming to Bruton in 2008, Harrod, who played four years as an outside linebacker at James Madison University, spent 11 years coaching at Denbigh High School in Newport News. He began his coaching career at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va. where he spent two years before coaching one season at Warwick.
He said he has numerous people to thank for their support during his time at Bruton — namely two of his assistants, Jones and Eric Johnson — which he said went by too fast.
“It was a quick six years, but it’s been awesome,” Harrod said. “I was delighted to come here and coach, and it turned out to being everything I thought it would be. We had so much success here, and the kids did everything. I couldn’t have asked for better kids who were productive on the field and in the classroom over the years or for a more loyal coaching staff.”
