When Cortney Braswell took over as the head football coach at Ridgeland High School, he knew it would take an incredible opportunity to make him want to leave. That opportunity has come much sooner than Braswell could have imagined.
Just one year after taking over his hometown program, Braswell has resigned at Ridgeland to join the new staff at the University of Louisville, where he will be a defensive quality control assistant.
"This is the most surreal thing that's ever happened to me," the 31-year-old coach said. "This kind of thing just doesn't happen to people like me. For me, this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can't think of another coach from our area who has had the chance to leave high school and go coach for a Power Five program.
"They could have hired anybody in the country and they chose me. That's so humbling. It's an unbelievable dream come true, and I'm so appreciative of it."
In his only season at Ridgeland, Braswell guided the team to an 8-4 finish and the second round of Georgia's Class AAAA playoffs.
Prior to that, he was the head coach at Central for two seasons, leading the Purple Pounders to the state playoffs each year after taking over a program that had gone 0-10 the season before he arrived. He compiled an 18-17 overall record in three seasons as a head coach. He also has worked as an assistant at Bradley Central, North Murray, East Ridge, Soddy-Daisy and Ringgold.
"I've been a journeyman most of my career, and each time I would arrive at a better place for myself," Braswell said. "I feel like I've done the best job I could at every stop, and there was nothing I wasn't willing to do as a high school coach to have the opportunity to better myself.
"I never thought I would've had the chance to coach at Ridgeland. When I got that job I wasn't looking to go anywhere else, but this offer came through the relationships I've developed with the staff that's now at Louisville. It's a unique situation at Ridgeland because I have family members on the team playing for me. That part is hard because you're not just saying goodbye to kids you care about but family as well. I do feel like we are leaving the program better than we found it."
Braswell will be joining the staff of newly hired Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield and will work closely with inside linebackers coach Dale Jones, the former Bradley Central and Tennessee Volunteers star who had worked at Appalachian State since 2006 and recently was hired to Satterfield's defensive staff.
Braswell developed a relationship with those coaches when they worked at Appalachian State, having taken his teams to the Boone, North Carolina, campus for preseason camps every year that he's been a head coach.
"We developed a great relationship with those guys and I became really good friends with Dale, which has meant the world to have him as a mentor. He's been so important in my development.
"I've never been a vacation guy. I don't go to the beach or take days off. I can't tell you how many times I would get a call from Dale saying he had some free time to talk ball, so I would hop in the car and drive four hours to Boone just to talk to him for a couple of hours about ideas and then drive back home. Any free time I got, I was always looking to become a better coach."
As a player, Braswell was a two-time all-state player and 2004 Mr. Football finalist at Baylor, and he was a member of the Times Free Press Dynamite Dozen for his senior season. By the end of his Red Raiders career he held the school record for single-game rushing yards and was the program's career rushing and scoring leader as well. He went on to play at Liberty University.
In a news release, Ridgeland High School stated, "The Walker County Board of Education, Superintendent Damon Raines, and Ridgeland's administrative team are grateful for Coach Braswell's service to the Panther Nation and are excited about his opportunities to pursue his passion for football at the next level."
School administrators have given current Panthers assistant head coach Kip Klein the responsibility of overseeing all football operations as the search for a new head coach begins.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.