Coach Reed May heads into his 31st season as the Head Coach of the Brownstown Central High School Varsity Football Team. Go Braves Go! They have done so for the last thirty years. I can’t foresee any reason to think this will not continue.
In 30 years, Coach May’s teams have accumulated an astounding 291-62 record. We don’t have room for a book here. That is for another day. There’s not the time nor the room in this space to list all the great seasons or all the great players or all the great assistant coaches or any other of the many accolades this high school program has proudly produced. That, and I sure don’t want to leave anyone out. This glory road has been long. I know all too well where the victories started.
On the night of September 10, 1993, after his team put up 20 second half points against a Corydon Central team that could not get out its own way, Coach May found victory number 1 of the 291 so far. I was standing on the other side of the field sporting a Corydon Central Panther polo shirt.
My job that night was to make sure all the Special Teams for the Panthers clicked. In the first half they did. One kicker made an extra-point kick true. Another Panther leg-swinger connected on a 34 yard field goal. Not to mention our punt return team was on the smiling side of an errant BCHS punt snap that handed Corydon Central a 2 point safety and a 12-0 halftime lead. I should have prayed for rain at halftime.
Whatever was said by Coach May at halftime, whether it was a butt chewing or prayer meeting, it worked. Coach May knew that the Panthers were winning while they were defeating themselves. For the game, Corydon committed 11 penalties, lost three fumbles, and a young man in a Braves uniform by the name of Jeremy Foster picked off a Panther pass and ran 70 yards untouched until his teammates mobbed him in the endzone in the middle of the third quarter giving the Braves, after a 2 point conversion, a 14-12 lead. Corydon Central shot itself in the foot so many times I am surprised Reed didn’t give the game ball to the Panther backfield.
The final score was Brownstown Central 20 Corydon Central 12.
After the game, I walked into the Corydon Central High School gymnasium to get caught up with a few of the Brownstown Central assistant coaches I knew at the time. When I walked into the gym I noticed Coach May sitting on the floor propped up by a cool concrete wall. No one was near him. He just sat there silently with a wry sort of smile trying to find its way from his face. He looked like a guy looking into the future. I think it has worked out.
For me all this holds more meaning than what is at face-value. My Dad, Larry Johnson, was the Braves head football coach for all of the 1970s save 1979. Over the years, some of my Dad’s former players have stood along that Brownstown Central Football sideline in the last thirty years. He too is most proud of their efforts.
Last season the Brownstown Central Braves had a record of 6-5. Couple that with Coach May’s first season in 1993, when the team was 5-4, and that is as bad as it has been for thirty years for the Braves. Who wouldn’t take that? There have been many 10-plus winning seasons. That is fantastic. I have a feeling this year’s BC team will be one to reckon with. Mid-Southern Conference, look out.
My coaching life did not last long. I too am an educator. I spent fifteen years as an English teacher and school counselor at Medora. You don’t find yourself in the gridiron fray at Medora when you drive 54 miles to get there and 54 miles back home everyday. That’s okay. My time at Medora was something I would do all over again.
Coach Reed May is a 2023 Indiana Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee and it is well deserved. I tip my visor to thee, Coach.
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson