The winningest coach in Panther football history is back by popular demand.
After 18 years, 141 wins and 15 playoff appearances, last November Josh Brooks stepped down as one of the program’s greatest-ever figures. Now, following an extensive search by the Macon County Board of Education, Brooks will return to lead his team through one of its most challenging seasons in memory.
“I think there’s a number of things,” said Brooks on his decision to undertake his 19th season at the helm. “First, the process had been extended, and during that whole process I had a chance to have a lot of reflection on the way that we had done things over the last decade, et cetera – the good and the bad. All that reflection time was really healthy, and [also] the fact that after 14 weeks there had not been another coach named.”
After tendering his resignation Nov. 13, citing decreased success on the field and the hope of spending more time with his own four children, Brooks was at peace with his decision to pass the torch. But when the search for a new head coach stretched into the new year, Franklin’s players grew increasingly apprehensive.
“The reaction was kind of both ways – we were sad to see him go, but we knew something greater was behind that,” said sophomore tailback/linebacker Addix Sutton of the team’s feelings upon learning Brooks had stepped down. “It gives you time to think about a lot of different things, and if we’re not using that time wisely and everybody else in the conference is, and they’re getting ready for their summer and getting ready for next season, we’re just sitting at a stall. It was kind of scary to those guys to not have a plan.”
In most years, teams use the winter to start preparing for the upcoming fall, self-scouting their own play from the previous season and getting a head start on workouts. But without a coach to direct their efforts, Sutton says the team’s morale suffered, with players falling behind in their offseason work and behaving poorly in the classroom. When the coaching search eventually neared its fourth month, with two outside candidates having turned down the job and one in-house candidate not receiving an offer, a group of players met to discuss calling for a resolution.
“We got a group together a couple weeks ago, and we mentioned it to some of the captains and returning guys from last year – I just wanted to see what they thought about it,” said Sutton. “We wanted the school board to know that what they were doing wasn’t going unnoticed, that we weren’t on their time at the end of the day, and we needed a head football coach. At that time, you saw [the rest of] Western North Carolina and Smoky Mountain found a coach and Pisgah found a coach, so there was a lot of that.”
With roughly two dozen players behind them, Sutton and other team leaders reached out to Brooks, telling him they’d support him if he were interested in returning. Soon after the players’ meeting, the coach was approached by a second, higher-up source.
“I was called into a meeting, we discussed some options, and one of the stipulations was that I wasn’t going back on my promises to my kids,” said Brooks. “I said I wanted to see my kids play [sports] and I’m gonna do that, so we’re gonna have to modify some practice times and stuff like that. And then, the fact that a group of men had made a commitment to coaching – some of whom weren’t coaching, some were. ... And, probably most importantly was the kids: seeing their feelings, their emotions, their needs. I’m not saying that can drive everything, but at the end of the day the program needed direction and needed leadership.”
Despite never having campaigned for the job, Brooks again became its number one candidate, with support from both the team’s players and from top school board officials. At the board’s regular called meeting Feb. 19, unbeknownst to Brooks, more than a dozen players attended to call publicly for his return.
“I kind of told those guys, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and we can go to the school board meeting on
Monday,” said Sutton. “We can all put something together to say, and I’ll speak it, and I’ve got to give credit to those guys because they were a part of what I was saying as well, 110%. They helped me put that together, and they were the ones that advocated for me to speak – I just happened to be the speaker.”
During the meeting’s public comment portion, Sutton raised the team’s concerns with the length of the coaching search, citing Brooks’ knowledge of the program and the rapidly approaching spring workout period. The next morning, Macon County Schools Superintendent Josh Lynch met with Brooks to offer him the job, and Brooks agreed to return for his 19th season. Brooks will remain at his previous salary of $74,052 as a 12-month employee with a football coaching supplement of $9,750, according to Renee Burt, executive assistant to the superintendent. He also serves as the county’s curriculum and instructional management coordinator.
Having previously retired briefly following the 2020-21 season, Brooks had been at peace with his decision to pass the torch to a new coach. But with so much uncertainty surrounding next season due to plans for a new high school building, the winningest coach in program history should provide a steady hand.
“I’m humbled and grateful for that response,” he said of the support from his players, the community and MCS staff. “It’s also challenging and motivating, because with that there comes expectations. I’m excited about the opportunity to continue to pour into the lives of young men in our program, our community and our school.”