By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            Milan Turner is one to think things through.

            That was the case when he surprised most folks and resigned after three mostly successful seasons at Thomson as he saw a difficult overall situation not improving.

            And it was the case when he took his stellar resume as an assistant and head coach and stepped back into an assistant’s role to, in large part, help out friend and coach Robby Pruitt at Coffee.

            So things had to be just right for Turner to leave that job as assistant head coach at Coffee, a Class 6A school that just played for a state championship, and take the offer at Veterans, a Class 5A school still basically in its infancy.

            Turner was approved Tuesday by the Houston County school board, his name submitted by Veterans principal Chris Brown, making his first major athletics hire since taking that position in April of 2015.

            Turner succeeds a former coworker. Turner worked under then-defensive coordinator David Bruce when the two were at Warner Robins a little more than a decade ago, Turner working with the Demons in 2003-04, including the state championship year in 2004.

            “It’s a great area, a great school system,” Turner said. “Obviously there are a lot of things there that are attractive to someone. Football matters in Houston County. Athletics matters. They realize that sports is a tremendous platform and opportunity to mentor young people, to mentor kids.

            “They support that extremely well there, and that’s attractive.”

            Turner, likely to be at Friday night’s home basketball doubleheader against Warner Robins, has talked a little bit with Bruce, who was let go after the season after serving as Veterans’ only head football coach and athletics director.

            “I think the world of him,” Turner said of Bruce. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Bruce. I have great memories of our time together at Warner Robins that I hold dear, are very special to me.”

            They haven’t talked much in the process of one replacing the other.

            “We’ve talked, not in great detail,” Turner said.”He’s never going to interject things. He’s that type of person. He’s the kind that I can call and ask a question and he’s going to help. He cares about kids and wants that program to be successful.”

            John Milledge head coach J.T. Wall and Peach County offensive coordinator Todd Cooper were the other two finalists, getting past the cut of 11 out of the original pool of nearly 40 applicants.

            Turner left Emanuel County Institute with a 65-12 record for Thomson, but things started turning soon after he took over. The principal and superintendent who were behind Turner’s hiring at Thomson left shortly thereafter, and he said things digressed.

            “There were some things, we’ll just say, that when I went there, there were some promises made that were not fulfilled,” Turner said. “I just made a professional decision, personally, that A) those things didn’t look like they were going to get done, and B) here was an opportunity to come here with Coach Pruitt as an assistant head coach and kind of help him with his vision of what he wanted this to be.

            “I just felt like for everyone involved, that was the best decision.”

            He remained in contact with Pruitt, under whom he worked at Fitzgerald and for Pruitt’s lone year at Warner Robins. Pruitt wanted some help, and it was the right fit.

            The two were part of Fitzgerald’s emergence as a state power from an also-ran. The Purple Hurricane went 9-41 the five seasons before Pruitt took over. They went 13-2 that first year, and had double-digit wins in all but one of Pruitt’s seasons there.

            Turner was part of those first three seasons and a 33-6-1 record that included a trip to the semifinals and finals, joining Pruitt for Pruitt’s one year at Warner Robins.

            Just as Fitzgerald began putting more into staff and facilities upon Pruitt’s arrival, so did Coffee. The Trojans were in better shape than the Purple Hurricane, going 30-27 in the five seasons before Pruitt arrived. After a pair of 5-5 seasons, Coffee has gone 37-14 in the last four seasons, which included Turner on the staff.

            Pruitt eventually had some health issues, mostly involving knee replacements, which was part of the reason Turner joined the staff. He assumed some duties to give Pruitt a break, and helped bolster the program’s strength and conditioning.

            “It worked out,” said Turner, who only left Warner Robins after two years because the next job was a head coaching job, at ECI. “The program was growing, and they put a huge emphasis on it in terms of facilities and hiring people. They wanted to build this program, they didn’t really have much tradition.”

            The stint at Coffee allowed Turner to pull back from the full plate of a head coach and athletics director, yet still be given a certain amount of control and an accompanying salary.

            Not surprisingly, some of what Turner expected at Thomson ended up being implemented, and the Bulldogs have gone 39-12 since Turner left with two trips to the quarterfinals and one to the finals.

            “It was mutually beneficial,” the father of son Dylan – who is the offensive coordinator at Washington-Wilkes for head coach and former Northside offensive coordinator Chad Alligood – and daughter Regan. “I think they’ve actually, since I left up there, some of the things have gotten better. … As long as it got done, because it’s all about the kids anyway.”

            But the 48-year-old from Florida who graduated from Georgia Southern brings more wisdom to his new job from the past few years. He said Coffee experience was nothing but positive and that the program will continue to grow, and he departs only because of the opportunity, and the location of that chance.

            “I have great, fond memories of my time there,” he said of Houston County. “That community, the support. So when this opportunity came around, it was almost like you pick up where you left off.”

            And Turner said there is a sense of confidence, knowing a bit what he’s getting into because he knows the person he’s replacing.

             “I knew that Coach Bruce had laid a great foundation,” Turner said. “He’s a great coach and he’s a great human being, and I knew that that would be a program going into that a foundation, discipline, things like that, I knew would be in place. I knew that it would be financially sound and all those kinds of things, because Coach Bruce is a man of character. I knew that.

            “I knew that you were going into a situation that wasn’t going to be a mess.”

            Plus, he likes taking over a program that’s looking to move onward and upward.

            “That’s’ kind of how I’m wired,” Turner said. “Coach Pruitt and I having that relationship and knowing what he wanted to do here and what was about to unfold. I just saw (Coffee) as a great opportunity. The leadership was in place, the resources were in place, I knew this was an opportunity where we could come in here and build something as a staff, together we could do something special.”

            Veterans is Turner’s latest such move, between current leadership, potential of the program and Turner’s timing to help programs go forward.

            “The good Lord has, I think, wired me to be a builder,” Turner said. “I like challenges, and I like the challenge and opportunity that that presents, being a young school. It’s still a fresh program, so to speak.

            “It’s something you can go in there and build and continue to grow it, also know that that’s a community that embraces tradition and success. It’s not like you have to look very far to see what it’s supposed to look like.”