October 6, 2021
Last Friday’s win over Dayton improved PN-G’s 2021 season record to 3-2 and 1-1 in district play.
QB Cole Crippen’s 4 TD passes, Chance Prosperie’s clutch receptions and Koby Trahan’s 159 yards rushing earned well deserved accolades from fans and media.
But there was no mention of another record that can only be credited to PN-G’s head football coach Brandon Faircloth. Given Faircloth’s propensity to give all credit to his players and assistant coaches, he was probably ok with that.
The context of that record is wins achieved by a head coach at PN-G, and Faircloth has risen to the top of that historical record keeping.
With the Dayton victory Brandon Faircloth became PN-G’s all-time leader in wins by a head football coach.
Potential Meets Opportunity
When Brandon Faircloth accepted the head coaching and athletic director position at Port Neches-Groves High School in early 2009, at only 31 years of age, he fully recognized the opportunity and challenges ahead of him. A situation where the community expected and demanded more gridiron success.
“First of all, it’s extremely humbling to be associated with a program of such rich tradition as Port Neches-Groves,” Faircloth would say when questioned about the opportunity. “I am ready to go to work immediately and get this thing going.”
In his short time as assistant coach and coordinator at several elite Texas programs, he had established himself as an up and coming coach who could produce an exciting brand of football.
He was aware of the 84 years of history, playoff success, fan support, and the tradition of former winning coaches. And even how it compared to the programs he had coached at which include Austin Westlake, Highland Park and Odessa Permian.
“I think PN-G is very similar to all those schools. They all have great communities, high expectations, great academics, and a wonderful, supportive fan base. “When you put those things together that is a great formula for success.”
Faircloth had helped each of those schools develop an explosive offense that contributed to their incredible success.
Leon Fuller, who was Odessa Permian’s AD while Faircloth was offensive coordinator for the Panthers, had nothing but positive things to say about him at the time. “He is a terrific young coach. He’s done wonders here for us. He’s had a different quarterback step in at Permian for each of the last three years and they have broken records year after year… He has a tremendous rapport with the young men and I think everybody in Port Neches is going to really like him.”
That formula was just what PN-G needed at the time and has resulted in 97 wins since.
Historical Perspective
Such an accomplishment deserves a little historical perspective to fully appreciate it.
Success was indeed achieved over the decades before Faircloth coached his first game under the Port Neches lights. From 1925 the Indians of Port Neches and Groves had earned 517 wins, 6 state final appearances and 3 state championships.
Well-known coaching names like Griffith, Stone, McCollum, Ford, Phillips, Watson, Ethridge, Malone, Burnett and 9 others had led the football program through good and bad times over those first 84 seasons.
I.B. Griffith was the first coach to achieve notable success. From 1930 through 1935 his teams would win 36 games including the regional championship in 1934. At the time the highest level of playoff achievement.
Gene McCollum would raise the bar to 68 wins after his 9 seasons as head coach from 1946-1954. With only 28 losses in that time, he led the Indians to a perfect record and regional championship in his first season, a 1953 state championship, and a state finals appearance in 1954. An inductee of the 1966 THSCA Hall of Honor, he succeeded on the bedrock that coaches Garner, Jarrell, Griffith, Walker, Hitt, Stone, Wright and Frankovic had built before him.
That record would stand until the first game of the 1980 season when head coach Doug Ethridge led his team to a 28-7 win over Pasadena Dobie for his 69th win at PN-G. Ethridge would increase his win total to 88 before stepping down after the 1983 season. His teams achieved a level of success that will be difficult to match, including two state semifinal appearances, a state championship and a second state finals appearance over 4 consecutive seasons.
Matt Burnett stepped into the head chief job in 1994 and by the fourth game of the 2007 season had won his eighty ninth game to surpass Ethridge. Burnett would coach for another season and end his 15-year tenure with 96 wins. Along the way his teams won 5 district championships and appeared in the playoffs 6 times including a state finals appearance in 1999. 13 of his players won all-state honors.
The Future and the Past Converge
Following in Burnett’s footsteps, Faircloth has done his best to continue that success. He quickly proved up to the task in his first year with a 10-0 regular season, the first at PN-G since 1946.
Fast forward to 2021 and Faircloth now leads them all with 97 wins and growing. Those first wins resulted in 5 district championships, 11 playoff appearances, and 39 players who received all-state recognition.
Through it all, and from the beginning, Faircloth knew that one thing mattered more than a coach collecting wins. Something that he wanted the 2009 hiring committee and the entire community to see. “You want them to see your heart and how it’s related to those kids, the program and the community”, he said almost 14 years ago.
Coach Faircloth has since done that and more.
No doubt he would tell anyone that the new win milestone does not diminish or exceed any of the great accomplishments achieved by the coaches before him. Such are the words and attitude of a humble, Christian man who values teaching life lessons as much as winning games.
Faircloth will next become the first head coach at PN-G to win 100 games. Beyond that there will be more wins, more district championships, and more playoff runs to be made. And hopefully another state championship someday.
As did those that came before him, he has raised the bar for the coaches that will follow in his footsteps someday. But that will hopefully be many years away. He’s still a young coach.
He has fulfilled that promise of giving his all to the community and the student athletes he has led. And he’s not done yet adding to the history and tradition of Port Neches-Groves football.
Update: The Indians reached the third round of the playoffs and ended the season with an 8-5 record. Coach Faircloth’s win total at PN-G is now 102.
To date PN-G has an overall record of 619 wins, 363 losses and 33 ties, and a playoff record of 52-31-1. Good enough to be ranked in the top 60 of over one thousand football programs in Texas football history.
To read more about Port Neches-Groves football history, visit https://www.pngindians.com/football/history/
B. Newton, pngindians.com, 10-06-2021
