Before Parkview and Buford became football dynasties, and long before Grayson and Collins Hill were born, there was Brookwood.
It was the school that brought booming Gwinnett County to prominence in the sport in the 1980s under a coach named Dave Hunter, one of many key figures who migrated from DeKalb County and redrew the football map in metro Atlanta and the state as a whole.
In a year of Gwinnett football resurgence — three county teams made the Class AAAAA semifinals — Brookwood is in the middle of it, advancing to a state championship game for the fifth time.
Oddly, few saw it coming three months ago. The program was in a slump.
“We’re not used to winning six games, especially two years in a row,” said Brookwood coach Mark Crews, referring to records of 6-5 and 6-6 in the past two seasons. “Those were difficult for us. I knew we had kids who were awfully hard-working kids and determined to change around the poor attitudes we’d experienced. We knew we had some talented kids.”
Crews took over for Hunter in 2002, at the peak of Parkview’s run of three straight titles in Class AAAAA. He took the Broncos to a state final in 2005. His 14-0 team, led by a linebacker named Rennie Curran, went to Valdosta and lost to Lowndes 49-7 in a driving rain.
There had been only one playoff victory since then for Brookwood, the sign of a fading dynasty. Schools such as Grayson, Peachtree Ridge and North Gwinnett had moved ahead.
In Hunter’s day, Brookwood won with linemen and ball control. The school won its only state championship in 1996 without throwing a pass in the title game, a 45-28 victory. It probably won’t happen again.
Those linemen hadn’t been as plentiful in recent years. Today’s Brookwood team has perhaps more speed than most of those Hunter coached. Brookwood has put up 40 or more points seven times. Receiver Andre Sims committed to Michigan State, and Cameron Lynch, perhaps the best linebacker in Class AAAAA, is going to Syracuse. He has more than 175 tackles.
Using some of those weapons, quarterback Ben McLane, though not a fashionable spread-offense quarterback, threw two key touchdown passes in the 26-7 victory Friday over Collins Hill.
But it still was Brookwood football, which means ball control and a solid running game. Nick Tompkins and Jamaal Cole each are over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.
Crews had an idea on how to stop Collins Hill’s record-setting quarterback, Taylor Heinicke, who had thrown for a county record 3,910 yards and 43 touchdowns.
“What do you do to stop it? Play great on offense,’’ Crews said. “You let them stand over there and watch on the sidelines. You’ve got to play keep-away.’’
That’s what happened.
Collins Hill had only three significant possessions in the first half, and no first downs in the second until converting a fourth-and-22 with 6:02 left. By then, Brookwood led 26-7.
Brookwood was back on top of Gwinnett football in the highest classification, maybe the state.
McLane, in his third season as the starting quarterback, was 4 when Brookwood won its state title in 1996, but he’s heard the stories. His father, Benjie, has been a Brookwood assistant for 19 years. Young Ben saw the 1996 Brookwood team win at Valdosta.
Brookwood’s 1996 quarterback, Billy Loder, called McLane earlier this week.
‘’He said he was proud of us,’’ McLane said. “Our theme this year was to bring Brookwood back. It’s an honor to be in the same breath as some of those teams.’’