Cherryville’s Coach Pruitt Retires Leaving the Four F’s Legacy
By: Grace Smith – Wise News Network
CHERRYVILLE, NC (WNN) – Faith, family, future and football. These four F’s are Timothy Pruitt’s motto for coaching football and teaching life. If you ask his coworkers, he is the embodiment of each.ย
His success isn’t just reflected in the trophy case, but also in the people he inspired. Coach Pruitt retired from teaching in 2022 but announced his resignation as the head football coach of Cherryville High School (CHS) in February 2024. He has been the head coach since 2016.
Coach Pruitt cherished his role as head football coach, reveling in the opportunity to introduce kids to the valuable lessons athletics can teach. He said engagement in sports teaches hard work and dedication in students.
“The things that we can gain from a team atmosphere is going to carry over with us when we go to work and we’re on the job force and we have to work with others,” said Coach Pruitt.ย
Coach Pruitt used the four F’s as a guideline. Through a steadfast commitment to faith, family, future, and football, the coach nurtured and influenced hundreds of students, instilling in them enduring values of success.
Faith
The first F is faith. Although faith to Coach Pruitt is a religious context, he emphasizes that everyone has to have faith in something.
“It might be the faith in the person beside you, it might be the faith in something that’s going to be there at the end of the day. Faith can be described in a lot of different ways,” said Coach Pruitt.
Coach Pruitt believes that having faith in something can produce hope. He wants his students to have a sense of trust and dependability, emphasizing the importance of having faith in others.
Family
Coach Pruitt is a family man. He is a father of three and understands the importance of a family’s support. That is why he wanted to ensure each of his students felt like they had a family to turn to.ย
“The secular family of a mom, dad, brother, sister, things of that nature, might not always be there. Kids might be growing up with one parent,” Coach Pruitt said, “Their families are all different, but hopefully they realize that our football family is always consistent.”
He recognized that educators may not be aware of students’ home lives, reinforcing the importance of supporting his students.
Future
Coach Pruitt emphasized the importance of education. This is why “future” is one of his four F’s.ย
Football is just one of many things he taught the kids. As his coworkers say: he taught them the game of life. He highlighted the importance of working hard in school for future success.
The coach is known for his stories and analogies. In an interview, Coach Pruitt raised his hands. He said his right hand represented $100 and his left hand represented $1.
“If I had $100 bills in this [right] hand and $1 bill in this [left] hand, this [right hand] would represent the academic scholarships in our country and this [left hand] would represent the athletic scholarships,” said Coach Pruitt.ย
He knows the value of education and urges his athletes to focus on their grades just as much as their extracurricular activities. As an Appalachian State alumni, Coach Pruitt knows the significant impact education has on shaping well-rounded individuals.
Football
The last of the four F’s is simple: when it is football season it is time to focus on football.ย
“When it’s football season, it’s football season. If it’s not football season, then let’s go be the best other type of athlete we can be,” said Coach Pruitt.ย
He believes that competitive sports are important for students’ development. Whether it’s football, baseball or cheerleading, the coach wants CHS students to experience the stakes of competition.ย
“The more you’re doing in the world we live in today, and the more you’reย competing, the better your opportunity is to get better,” said Coach Pruitt.
Farewell to Coach Pruitt
In the coming years, the coach’s children will attend CHS. He may be retiring from coaching football at CHS, but he said students might still see him on the field in another sport. Currently, he is focusing on being there for his family.
“I’ll always keep that door open,” said Coach Pruitt.ย
Until they see him again, Coach Pruitt’s coworkers will miss him greatly. From Principal Shawn Huber to the cheerleading coach, the faculty at CHS know how much the coach impacted the school.
Principal Huber commends the coach for leading by example. He lightheartedly relayed a story of the coach doing push-ups to hold himself accountable after a reaction on the field. Coach Pruitt has his students do push-ups to teach sportsmanship.
“He’s just not going to ask anybody to do something that he wouldn’t be willing to do himself,” said Principle Huber.ย
The other football coaches will miss him in the classroom and on the field. Scott Jenkins is the defensive coordinator. He and Coach Pruitt go way back as old friends and former roommates from their Appalachian State dorm days. He has seen the coach through many phases.
“He would always give me his input because I would always ask him, but he would always let me, you know, try different things to make us better and help us to be successful,”said Jenkins.
The CHS athletic director, Scott Harrill, is also one of Coach Pruitt’s old friends. Coach Pruitt served as Harril’s resident assistant at Appalachian State, where Harrill gained valuable insights not only into football but also life lessons.
“I learned a lot of lessons early in my coaching career from watching him work, his work ethic, his caring for kids, his Christian attitude, you know, just how he serves others,” said Harrill.
Half a dozen faculty members spoke about Coach Pruitt’s impact. Each person admired the coach for various reasons, but the shared factor was his uplifting spirit both in terms of school pride and his demeanor.
“His impact starts with the kind of person that he is; not only is he a great football coach and teacher in the game of football, but Coach Pruitt has always prioritized teaching the game of life to students, teaching them lessons that are going to live on way beyond just the four years that he works with them,” said Principal Huber.
Principal Huber said the position of head football coach has been posted and CHS should start the interview process soon. Come football season, Coach Pruitt will be cheering on his former students from the stands.
The sentiments are a mix of gratitude and loss as CHS reflects on Coach Pruitt’s career. The teachings of faith, family, future, and football may echo in the halls and on the football field, leaving a legacy after the coach departs. That’s the magic of legacies’ they live on in those you influence.
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