Brett Garvin earned himself a pretty special retirement gift. Garvin’s Sandy Creek High squad won a state football championship in the fall, and he taught his last semester in the spring after more than two decades with Fayette County Public Schools in the spring.
“You can’t write a better ending if you tried,” said Garvin. “When any young coach comes into the game they think I’m gonna win a state championship my last year and walk away. It came true, so what else can I say.”
He’s been in coaching more than 30 years with 20-plus of them at Sandy Creek, but he can’t totally say goodbye to the game that’s been in his blood for life. He’ll be going back to South Carolina where he grew up to relax and dial back to just being an assistant coach again. An old coach gave him a bit of advice, “Don’t come back home until you’re ready to retire,” and Garvin took it to heart.
It’s more than just on-field excellence for Garvin. He practiced what he preached and pushed himself in academics. He is one of what is likely a very small percentage of high school football coaches who has a doctorate.
“If I’m going to be a stickler about their education, well then I need to do it. I don’t need to just tell them, I need to do it,” he said. “It’s more about walking the walk, not just talking the talk with the kids.”
His love of history made it a fun pursuit, and he enjoyed sharing that passion with his students. Studying influential world leaders and key conflicts goes along with what he loved most about coaching. He loves breaking down film and figuring out a gameplan for the next week, then seeing his players excel with that plan.
“It’s the chess match of it,” he said. “To come up against coaches and say let me see if I can coach in this game better than you do.”
In his lengthy career in Tyrone, he’s coached Hall of Famers and plenty of other pro football players, but success to him is also all his former students who excelled in life. That’s what winning is all about.
“When they do something good, and you know you had an impact on that, to me that’s pretty good.”
“The Honor Role,” the first official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.
Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and promoted on the social media channels of Fayette County Public Schools.
Episodes will also be available here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2200811.
