Gilmer's Gospel

Brian Lane talks with the media following his introduction as the new football coach at Woodruff. (Photo by Mike Bonner)

    The past week may have seemed like a blur for some Woodruff High School employees.
    That’s because in a matter of five days school officials lost a football coach and hired another.
    “Certainly I think I’ve experienced the two-minute drill in the past four or five days,” principal Karen Neal said. “What a difference a week can make.”
    Yes it can.
    One week ago, Brian Lane was trying to improve his program at South Florence High School.
    Now, he’s coming back home as the new coach at Woodruff. He replaces Freddie Brown who stepped down last Wednesday to be the coach at Spartanburg High School.
    For four years while Lane was an assistant coach at Byrnes he lived in Woodruff.
    He grew up near the school and watched a lot of stellar athletes play on the field at W.L. Varner Stadium.
    He was a lowly clipboard-carrying freshman quarterback the night former standout Derek Jones ran back-to-back kickoffs for scores against his Byrnes Rebels. Jones only received one more kickoff that night before the kicker was told not to kick to him again.
    Now, Lane is in the position that some coaches wish for – he’s the head coach at one of the most tradition-filled schools in the state.
    “It would be on anyone’s radar with this type of tradition,” Lane said. “When a job of this magnitude comes open, this could be anyone’s dream job.”
    The Wolverines were 9-3 last year and showed signs of spreading the field and throwing it. With Lane, the wishbone might be a thing of the past.

    He’s a thrower. He tossed for 5,068 yards in three years at Byrnes (and was on the cover of the Herald-Journal's high school football preview in 1994 - at right) and is looking forward to the young arm of Jake Lambert.
    “Right now at Woodruff they have a rising junior quarterback that I’ve seen in passing leagues,” Lane said. “With the type of offense that I’m going to bring, you need to have a quality quarterback and that’s here.”
    Lambert is just as excited. He wanted to throw more last year, even though he threw for 1,582 yards, which is unheard of at Woodruff.
    Not anymore.
    “We have a lot of speed and talent coming back from last year,” Lambert said. “I think we’ll be able to build off what we already had and be an explosive offense.”
    “(The spread is) all I know,” Lane said. “That’s what I was born on and what I played quarterback in. So, that’s what we’re going to do here.”
    When Woodruff athletic director Scott Lawson called former Rebels coach Bobby Bentley looking for a reference it came quickly. Lane means so much to Bentley that the Presbyterian College coach named one of his sons after his former quarterback. That’s really all Lawson needed to hear.
    It’s because of Bentley that Lane is where he is now.
    As a sophomore quarterback he spent time at Bentley’s house learning about the game.
    “I was just a little skinny quarterback who played at Byrnes High School,” Lane said. “That summer he had us over at his house, I feel in love with the scheming, and the different things it takes to play quarterback.”
    “This is an exciting time for Woodruff,” superintendent Rallie Liston said. “We approach it with renewed optimism and embrace it knowing that our students will be in the hands of someone who is Christ-centered, family oriented and extremely knowledgeable of the game of football.”
    For years Lane was a winner at Byrnes. Now he’ll try to do the same thing in Woodruff.
    “Our charge was to find somebody who would reflect our coaching philosophy and our football philosophy, who would express a passion for athletics and have the ability to inspire, have a love for and commitment to his students,” Neal said. “Today our hearts are filled with anticipation and excitement as we introduce this new leader of the Wolverines.”
    Lane has large shoes to fill, but he certainly has the pedigree and the know-how to do so.