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Hillsboro promotes Anthony Brown to head football coach; McGavock chooses Frederick Burnette




Members of the Hillsboro High School varsity football team take a knee and listen to a pregame speech from head coach Maurice Fitzgerald before their game Friday evening against Hunters Lane High School.JAY SOWERS

Members of the Hillsboro High School varsity football team take a knee and listen to a pregame speech from head coach Maurice Fitzgerald before their game Friday evening against Hunters Lane High School.JAY SOWERS

After he stepped down, Maurice Fitzgerald felt good about the candidates who might replace him as Hillsboro’s football coach.

“There’s some good people on staff,” he said in March.

Hillsboro’s administration ultimately felt the same way. It promoted Hillsboro defensive coordinator Anthony Brown to head coach over the holiday weekend.

Brown coached Fitzgerald’s defenses for all four seasons of the former head coach’s tenure. He had been overseeing the Burros’ spring workouts after Fitzgerald announced plans to retire from coaching earlier this spring.

Hillsboro initially planned to make a hire before the end of April, but the process took longer.

“Coach Brown has demonstrated the character and expertise to continue the great work that Coach Fitzgerald began several years ago and to take us to the next level,” Hillsboro principal Dr. Shuler Pelham said in a release. “We have already begun the passing of the torch during spring practice and look forward to kicking off a new season in our new stadium this fall!”

 

 

Brown starred at Glencliff in high school before his playing career at Tennessee State.

Hillsboro made the playoffs in each of Fitzgerald’s four seasons, including a 9-4 campaign in 2018 when the Burros lost a 20-19 thriller to Beech in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.

McGavock taps Burnette

McGavock football also filled its head coaching vacancy, placing Frederick Burnette in charge.

Burnette also serves as the school’s dean of students. He has been an offensive coordinator for 13 seasons. He ran Maplewood’s offense in 2018 when the Panthers went 12-2 and reached the state semifinals, and was named Region 4 Class 4A Assistant Coach of the Year.

Haywood High School graduate played at Tennessee State, where he started at receiver as a junior and senior and became team captain.

McGavock went 1-5 during a 2020 season shortened by the pandemic.

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