Briarwood’s Yancey wins No. 300

Fred Yancey has made the greatest impact over his 28 years at Briarwood Christian School as the head football coach, instructing student-athletes on the intricacies of the game and molding them into productive members of society. 

But to wrap his mind around the milestone he reached in Briarwood’s 23-6 win over Fairfield on Sept. 22, he had to summon skills from a subject taught in the halls of the school.

Yancey won his 300th career game at the high school level that night, with 259 of those coming at Briarwood, where he has been since 1990.

“You can’t win 300 games unless you’ve coached a lot of years,” he said. “That’s just the mathematics of it.”

The win improved Briarwood to 4-0 on the season at the time. Yancey knew heading into the season that he needed four wins to reach that milestone, and with the quality of team he had returning in 2017, he figured that mark would be achieved relatively quickly.

Even though he was aware, there was neither a build up, nor an announcement that this night was fast approaching. “Nobody really knew about it,” Yancey said.

During his time at Briarwood, Yancey has guided the Lions to three state championships, and the program will be making its 25th consecutive appearance in the state playoffs this fall.

“It is an encouragement to know that for so many years I’ve been able to be surrounded with guys who love football, both players and coaches. It’s been a great place to be for a number of years.”

Yancey has coached for more than 40 years and has maintained a strong track record of success throughout that time. He said one of his favorite parts of his job has been keeping up with the evolution of football over the decades.

“I was telling [my team] about the first game that I ever won, in 1974,” Yancey said. “We won 8-7 in overtime.”

That was Yancey’s first chance as a head coach, at Towering Oaks High School in Memphis. Football has since transitioned to a much more frenetic game and utilizes finesse now more than ever before.

But Yancey has not been one of those coaches to draw a line in the sand and refuse to adapt. He has embraced the changes that have come.

“That’s been fun to keep up with and to try to stay on the cutting edge of how to play,” he said. “It’s the same game, yet it’s a different game.”

Yancey said people who make it through the first few years of any job tend to become “pretty good at that profession.” One of Yancey’s greatest lessons as a young coach was finding the balance between being hard on his players while also making the environment enjoyable for them.

“That was a learning thing for me, to figure out that motivated guys who are willing to work hard, they have a lot of fun,” he said.

It’s obvious that Yancey learned that lesson, because messages of gratitude and support poured in following his milestone victory. For him, that’s what it’s all about.

“It’s a reminder that the work we do as football coaches really is greater than the Friday night wins or Friday night loss,” he said.