Freeman steps down as head football coach at Brooks County

QUITMAN, Ga. (WALB) - A good coach can be measured by many things: the number of wins they’ve accumulated, the way they turn a program around or most importantly the impact they had on their players. Brooks County Head Football Coach Maurice Freeman can check all three of his list. After 20 years of bringing the hammer, he’ll be resigning as head coach of the Trojans.

“I am the originator of ‘Bring That Hammer.’ Now here at Brooks County, we bring that hammer and we leave with a tassel. This is my hometown it means a lot to me. I’m sorry that the run is over but the run is over. I want to rest and it’s time for a younger man to take this job,” said Freeman

Freeman is revered as the best coach to ever put on the red, white and blue. In his 20 seasons at the helm, he leads the Trojans to the only two state titles in school history. The first in his rookie season as head coach in 1994, and almost 30 years later in 2021 he led his team to the second championship with a victory over longtime rivals Irwin County. The desire to be the best is something that was instilled in him when he suited up as a Trojan.

“My coaches, Coach Milligan, Coach Gamble they always taught me to work hard. Coach Caldwell always told me to work hard and that hard work will champion anything else. Run, lift weights, work hard, be obedient have morals and values” said Freeman. “Those were the things that were taught and those are the things I hope I passed on to my young men,” Freeman said.

Freeman is the winningest head coach in Brooks County history with a 196-65 record, six region titles and two state championships, despite just 61 losses in two decades. Coach Freeman’s tenure has been filled with many off-the-field losses saying “You know the toughest part about it is that I lost a coach, a partner that I coached with for 20 years. Marvin Mitchell I lost him during the summer and him and I made a pact that we’d leave here together it was really my dream for us to retire together to go off in the sunset and say hey we’ve both done our job. We’ve done a good job here and we’ve done our job so we wanted to leave together. Unfortunately, I lost him last summer. And this has been the toughest year that I’ve ever coached. We had a lot of success but just losing him people didn’t know that I was depressed every game I’m on the sidelines looking for him and I miss him and it was tough”

While Freeman’s next steps are unclear, there’s one thing he’ll be carrying with him no matter where he goes.

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