High school football: Union County brings back hall of famer Robby Pruitt; new coaches at Keystone, Menendez

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The high school football coaching carousel continues to spin, including the return of a coaching legend in Robby Pruitt and new hires at both Keystone Heights and Menendez.

Union County announced the return of Pruitt on Wednesday, bringing home the hall of fame coach to a place he knows well. Pruitt led Union County to three consecutive state championships and a state-record 52 consecutive wins between 1994-96. He also had remarkable success at University Christian, winning four state titles (1987-89 and 1991-92).

He was inducted in the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2000.

Pruitt left Union County after the 1999 season for Georgia school Fitzgerald. He spent the next two decades in the Peach State, going to Warner Robins, back to Fitzgerald and then to Coffee.

Pruitt won 209 games in Georgia. He returned from there to Williston where he spent the past four seasons, including a 10-2 mark this past year.

Union County abruptly fired successful head coach Andrew Thomas last May and named Lamar Waters as the interim head coach. The Tigers went 2-8 and announced that they would be leaving the FHSAA in football and joining the Sunshine State Athletic Conference.

New head coach at Menendez

The school’s boosters announced the hiring of Will Stansell as the new Falcons coach on Wednesday.

“I think of all the schools I’ve been in, I’ve made the most meaningful relationships at Pedro [Menendez],” Stansell said. “Had the most fun, been on the greatest staffs ... the faculty is top notch. It was good to go to work,” he said. “I wasn’t really looking for anything. I knew this opportunity was probably always the one that was in my mind.”

Stansell has coaching experience at both the high school and college levels, starting out at Coosa High School and then moving to Green County, both in Georgia in the 2000s. He spent two seasons on staff at Jacksonville State (2010-11) and then worked at Louisiana Lafayette in 2012. Stansell coached previously at Menendez and St. Augustine before taking a coaching position at Cornerstone, a small school in Texas, and then returned to the area in 2023 and began working in the private sector.

Keystone Heights hires familiar name

Keystone Heights announced the hire of Cameron Porch as its new head coach on Wednesday. Porch is a coaching veteran who has been in the area previously. He did solid work with the Panthers, going 11-19 in his time there. But he took Ridgeview from 0-10 in his first year to 6-4 and 5-5 seasons before leaving for a position in Georgia. Porch will look to have that same sort of improvement at Keystone, where the Indians slid to an 0-10 season in 2025.

Porch also had success at Trenton, reaching the Rural FIT state semifinals in 2024. He also coached at Mount Dora.

Football coaching changes