Kent Briggs, Cherokee football championship coach, dies at 68
· Yahoo Sports
CHEROKEE – Kent Briggs was more than a football coach.
Briggs spent nearly all of his career in the mountains, from the time he was a quarterback at Reynolds to his days at Western Carolina – as a quarterback, an assistant and a head coach – to his stint in charge at Cherokee. But he was also a father figure and a mentor to both coaches and players, those close to him said.
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Briggs died June 19. He was 68.
“Kent was just a great man, an all-round top-notch guy,” Craig Barker, defensive coordinator under Briggs and the current Cherokee principal, said. “Anybody who ever met Kent Briggs, they were blessed and always came away feeling better about themselves.”
Briggs graduated from Reynolds and played quarterback at Western Carolina from 1976-79. He served as an assistant shortly after graduating, then coached on staffs at NC State and Connecticut before returning to become the head coach at Western Carolina from 2002-07, where he had a 22-43 record.
Briggs battled cancer twice as a head coach, first being diagnosed with head and neck cancer while with the Catamounts in 2005 and later facing Stage 4 prostate cancer that spread to the lymph nodes in 2017.
“He came in every day, never missed a practice, never missed a game,” Barker said. “He just was such a role model for the students with his grit and determination.”
When he was hired in 2014, the Braves were coming off a winless season. Barker reached out to Briggs during the coaching search because he knew Briggs was interested in coming to Cherokee. Barker said he fit in perfectly with the Braves.
He was 37-29 in his five seasons at Cherokee. Briggs turned the program around in four years to bring home Cherokee’s only state title in 2017.
The Braves entered halftime of the 1A state title game downtrodden and in a small deficit when Briggs rallied the team with a halftime speech, Barker said. They would pull ahead in the second half for a 21-13 victory.
Langston Wood, an assistant coach for the Braves who has his No. 24 retired at Cherokee, was also an assistant under Briggs, and said it was amazing to be a part of the school’s first title.
Wood said Briggs brought peace to the community and the school. His football mind was also constantly running.
“He was always drawing stuff up on the board,” Wood said. “Just little things you wouldn’t think would end up being very impactful, but small things create big things.”
TC Guyer, Cherokee’s first-year football coach, said the team will likely wear a helmet decal or a jersey patch to honor Briggs during the season.
“Throughout this year, that is going to be something we make sure these guys remember,” Guyer said. “Coach Briggs, he got this thing going in the right way and that is now what we’re trying to do here. We’re going to try to honor him the best way we can this year with it.”
Guyer first met Briggs when he interviewed for a job after Briggs was hired. Guyer said every interaction he had with Briggs was positive and often went beyond football.
“We mourn the loss, but we are thankful for the time we had here (with him),” Barker said. “What he gave to Cherokee High School, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, will last forevermore.”
Evan Gerike is the high school sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @EvanGerike.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Kent Briggs, Cherokee football state champion coach, dies at 68