Brookwood coach credits strong start to seniors ‘playing unselfish football’

Today’s Four Questions interviewee is Brookwood coach Chad Nighbert, who has led the team to its first 3-0 start since the COVID-affected 2020 season. After its season-opening win against Cambridge, Brookwood reentered the AJC Varsity rankings for the first time since 2023. The Broncos are currently ranked No. 7 in Class 7A. Nighbert, who was previously a longtime defensive coordinator, took over for Philip Jones, who led the team to two region championships in 10 seasons as head coach.

1. Brookwood is off to its first 3-0 start since 2020. Where do you place credit for that strong start?

“It’s the senior leadership that we have. The kids have bought in, and they’re totally all about this program, as they have been for many years together. It doesn’t matter what position you’re talking about — if you look at my offense or my defense or even special teams — we’re loaded with a lot of seniors. We have 44 seniors on the team, so we are top-heavy, but at the same time, we have a lot of experience. A lot of guys that have a lot of experience — a lot of really, really good players — and they’re playing very well together, and they’re playing unselfish football.

2. Brookwood returned to the rankings this year for the first time since 2023. What does that mean to you and what do you tell players about the pressure of success?

“Well, it definitely puts a bigger target on your back, and I told the same thing to our team. We don’t worry about rankings. We don’t worry about ratings. We don’t worry about any of that kind of stuff because at the end of the day, we can’t control that. All we can do is play the games that are on our schedule. Make sure that we work in all three phases of the game, and then we do the best that we can on every one of those phases.

“ … And at the end of the day, you know, once, when it comes to shove at the end of 10 games, we’ll find out exactly what we’re ranked and where we are, and we’ll know whether we’re playing home games or away games, and it makes that part of the game easier ... The better that you play, the better competition that you play, the higher you’re going to be ranked. You want the higher rankings that you can kind of stay at home.”

3. With PSR, that’s a bit more complicated than it traditionally has been. You all are about to play a powerhouse in Marist. How did that come to be?

“As you said, PSR matters, and you’re trying to play the best teams that you can possibly play. When building our schedule, I had to look at some things. We usually play in the Corky Kell. We don’t have much say in who we’re going to play. It just gets picked for us, and then we come and play in that game. We’re always going to play South Gwinnett because they used to be in our region, but now that they’re not in our region. We’re still going to play them because it’s the Battle of Snellville. So that only gave us two openings, and I wanted to make sure that we schedule people who are perennial winners who would help us get better PSR. I was looking for different programs. I wanted programs that are good every year, always going to be a 10-win team or 11-win team. That’s what I was trying to find.”

Note: This is the first time Marist and Brookwood have played. Marist is ranked No. 3 in Class 5A.

4. Brookwood has had alumni as head coaches since 2001. How was it for you coming in as a non-alumnus?

“Yeah, and (legendary coach) Dave Hunter was really the last one that came out from the outside. And he did a phenomenal job, obviously. The stadium is named after him. The whole complex down there is named after him. We play in the Corky Kell because of him. And then you had Mark Crews that followed him and then obviously Philip, so there hasn’t been many head coaches. I’m just the fifth head coach in history of Brookwood.

“The one good thing is I was there four years before as the assistant head coach. They kind of knew who I was, and I think at the end of the day, they felt like I was the best person ready for this job and for that school.

“(Being a head coach) is a job that I’ve always wanted. So it came open, and everything kind of worked out well. When I first went there, I didn’t have any intention or thinking that I was going to be the head coach of Brookwood. It just kind of played out that way as it went as we went through everything.