Lee County School Board Welcomes New Smiths Station Coach

BY KENDYL HOLLINGSWORTH KENDYLH@ OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM

LEE COUNTY —

It’s official — Smiths Station High School has a new head football coach.

The Lee County Board of Education approved the hire of Bryant Garrison at its Feb. 14 meeting.

“I’d like to first welcome you, coach Garrison, to the community of Lee County, specifically Smiths Station,” Superintendent Mac McCoy told Garrison at the meeting. “We’re looking forward to seeing what you can do with our kids, and we’re glad to have you here.”

Garrison succeeds Mike Glisson, who announced his resignation in December 2022 after five seasons as the Panthers’ head football coach. Glisson had served in that role since 2018 and previously served as defensive coordinator for the Beauregard High School Hornets. He was also head football coach for the Glenwood Gators in the late ‘90s.

Garrison comes to

47-45.

But Glenwood won when it mattered most. It beat Lee-Scott by one point in the Final Four, and junior forward Brandon McCraine knocked down a buzzer beater to return the favor on Macon East by the same margin it was previously defeated by.

“I’m still in disbelief that the shot went in… The Final Four and the Championship game is as locked in as my boys have been all year,” said head coach Dusty Perdue. “They never gave up, even when we got down by seven in the championship game. It was two heavyweight fighters punching back and forth, and we were lucky enough to get the ball last.”

That’s only after Glenwood beat Springwood in the Region Tournament 58-57 to clinch an Elite 8 appearance at the Crampton Bowl in Montgomery, where Glenwood was able to slow down the game and use its

Smiths Station High School after a season as head football coach for the Slocomb High School Redtops. According to WTVY News 4 in Dothan, Garrison has coaching experience that spans the past decade, serving as defensive coordinator and head strength and conditioning coach at Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia. This will be his second run as a head coach.

Earlier in the meeting, the board officially selected Schneider Electric to be an energy partner of Lee County Schools, per the superintendent’s recommendation.

At the Jan. 10 board meeting, representatives from Schneider Electric gave a presentation on what that partnership means and how it could benefit Lee County Schools as it has several other school systems across the state. The end goal is to cut down on energy costs so that more funds can be allocated to the classroom.

Now that the partnership has formed, the board will post presence to hold each of its opponents under 40 points.

Overcoming its rivals in the playoffs meant a change in strategy to utilize its size advantage that Perdue said Glenwood has had all season. With brothers Mason and Brandon McCraine standing around 6-foot-5 and senior forward Lukas Holman at 6-foot-4, the Gators knew the venue would allow them to force other teams to play to Glenwood’s strength.

“Playing at the Cramton Bowl, the court goes from 84 to 94 feet, so it’s a very long court, and it’s harder for those teams like LeeScott to get on a run,” Holman said. “That’s what they love to do. That’s how they wear you down.

Coming into that game, we knew if we could get back on defense and make them run a half-court offense, we could win that game.

It was also us not having to rush our offense and do what we needed to do.”

After the emotional roller-coaster of a long football season ending in a State Championship loss to Lee-Scott, losing nine allow Schneider to assess areas for improvement in the schools.

The board also approved amendments to the contracts for the superintendent and chief school financial officer, but according to District 5 Board President Ralph Henderson, the changes are minor — just verbiage — and will not alter any part of the agreements already set forth.

Lee County CSFO Ken Roberts also gave his basketball players from last season, and playing an arduous 34-game schedule, it all came down to Brandon McCraine.

And he had no idea he was getting the ball. With 3.8 seconds on the clock, Perdue lined his boys up in a box set, and Macon East responded with a timeout to adjust. That didn’t bother Perdue. He lined up his team out in the same formation as before, but it was followed by confusion from his team, so he answered with a timeout of his own. He then directed them back out with the exact same scheme as originally planned.

The play was designed for Brandon’s brother, sophomore Mason McCraine, to get the ball. When two Macon East players locked in on him, that left Brandon one-onone. Holman wisely spotted Brandon breaking to the basket and hit him with a bounce pass, and then, as Perdue put it, “the rest is an athletic player making a play.”

Brandon drove to the goal, Macon East kept monthly financial report for December 2022. Roberts said at the previous board meeting that it was too soon for the information to provide meaningful data as it relates to budget goals. But now that the first quarter of the fiscal year has come to pass, the data can start to reveal where the system is headed.

By the end of the first quarter, Roberts said Lee County Schools has spent just over 25% of its budget. In addition, local revenue some space in order not to foul, and he went up. The ball rolled around the rim, the gym fell silent and the ball fell through the rim to a roaring crowd of orange.

“I was kind of lost for words. I really didn’t know what was happening or what was going on, but it felt great,” Brandon said.

It was the team’s motto all season: “Why not us?” Everyone else might have been shocked, but Glenwood knew all along that they were as capable as anyone – it was all a matter of coming together at the right time.

According to Holman, the Gators started the season with little respect from opponents. They finished second in its region in the regular season and third out of four in the region tournament, but it’s them who hoisted the trophy in the Cramton Bowl.

“None of us were basketball players. We were just good athletes, and that’s what got us there,” Brandon said.

But with just a 10-man roster and only three seniors, it took more than coming together on the has increased 29% over the last five years with an average annual growth of 5 to 6%. Payroll has also increased about 7 or 8% compared to the first quarter of the previous fiscal year.

“Obviously, we had a 4% cost of living raise, we had larger raises for advanced degrees and more years of experience, so that is where we’re at there,” Roberts explained. State-mandated raises also contributed to the increase.

Roberts said Lee County Schools is also working to diversify its investments.

“We technically have $23 million of our reserves at the moment currently invested, and we’ve committed to $20 to 28 million, depending on cash flow, depending on what our needs are,” he added.

IN OTHER BUSINESS:

• The board approved various overnight and out-of-state field trips for students.

• The board approved the Lee County Schools Seclusion and Restraint monthly report for January 2023.

• The board approved court to make a championship team. It took perseverance, trust and determination, and all of that came to fruition when Holman scratched the game plan, trusted his eyes and hit his teammate in stride.

“You put a bunch of athletes together, they fight. They might fight each other, and that’s okay because when it’s cuttin’ time, there’s no quit in them,” Perdue said. “That’s what being a competitor and an athlete is all about is you don’t quit. They didn’t quit, and we found a way to beat our two nemesis’ in the pupil personnel service recommendations.

• The board also approved four student expulsions.

McCoy said all members of the Lee County Board of Education are set to take part in a training next month.

The meeting closed with public comments from four citizens, three of whom spoke at the Jan. 10 board meeting. They each reiterated the need for action in what they deem inappropriate in the schools, such as LGBTQ clubs, sex education and students being disruptive with animal-like behavior. The fourth speaker raised concerns about the “dangerous” behavior of one of his daughter’s elementary school classmates.

The Lee County Board of Education typically meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. in the central office, located at 2410 Society Hill Road in Opelika. Find the schedule and meeting agendas at www.lee.k12.al.us/domain/1399.

Final Four and the State Championship. The rest is history, and now we get to celebrate all the accolades of that.”

For Perdue, that means celebrating his fourth State Championship as the Glenwood boys basketball coach. For Holman, that means ending his high school basketball career on a high note, and now him, Brandon and three of the other basketball players will aim to go to their third State Championship in the academic year on the baseball field.

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