Robby Pruitt will be back on the sidelines this week, except this time he will be wearing purple and gold.

Pruitt, who gave up the red and white when he stepped down as Willison’s head coach to become Union County’s head coach in December, is back in Lake Butler for his second stint following his departure 27 years ago (1993-1999).

Union County will host Ribault (Jacksonville) for its spring game at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Tiger Stadium.

“Not a whole lot changed as far as the town goes,” Pruitt said. “I think they’ve gotten a McDonald’s and a Hungry Howie’s since I left, and that’s it, so that’s kind of still the same town.”

The FHSAA Hall of Fame coach said, “It was hard” to leave Williston.

“That’s a great place, a great community, and Williston was very, very good to me and good to our players,” Pruitt said. “That’s one of the better communities in Florida. I honestly believe that and I’m not just saying it. They love their youth there, and they support everything.”

When Pruitt arrived in Williston (2022-2025), the Red Devils were down. They went 1-8 in 2021 and won a total of 24 games in eight seasons from 2014-2021.

He got them within a game of the final four this past November, within a game of the state championship game in 2024, and he won 39 games in four seasons at Williston (39-9).

While at Williston, he won his 400^th game overall against Trinity Catholic (Ocala) in 2024 and then set a national milestone by becoming the first high school football coach in the country to win 200 games in two different states (Florida and Georgia), also against Trinity Catholic in 2025.

“It was very humbling,” said Pruitt, who won four state football championships at University Christian in Jacksonville (1987, 1989, 1991, 1992) and three straight state titles at Union County (1994-1996), including a then state-record 52-game winning streak.

Pruitt, who was born in 1961, became the youngest coach in Florida high school history to win 100 games in 1997.

While in Georgia, he led Fitzgerald to the Class 3A final in 2000 and Coffee to the 6A championship game in 2017.

Now, after 42 seasons as a head coach (413–101–1), he’s back home in Lake Butler, where he was 79–10 in seven seasons

“A lot of the people that were my boosters when I was here are no longer with us anymore,” said Pruitt, who almost didn’t end up in Lake Butler. “They’ve gone to glory, a lot of them. We’ve got a few of them still here, but it’s a lot of new faces. Most of the teachers that were here when I was here are retired, so I’ve got to keep telling myself that was 27 years ago…we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a work in progress, for sure.”

Pruitt is planning a two-year rebuilding process for Union County, which will compete in the Sunshine State Athletic Association (SSAA) for at least the next two seasons.

“Yeah, they got in that (SSAA) before I got here,” he said. “To be honest with you, this is going to be a major rebuilding process here for the next two years. If we’re over 500 (enrollment) in two years, we’re currently 540, are we going to be in 2A with the Bolles (Jacksonville) and Chaminade-Madonna’s (Hollywood) and the Cocoa’s? If so, at Union County, we can’t play with those types of teams.”

After Thursday’s spring game, the next phase of his plan is the summer workouts, but he also emphasized the need to revive local interest in football amidst strong competition from other sports, including baseball, which recently won its first state title since 2012.

“We’ve got a lot of kids that want to play basketball and baseball and not many that want to play football,” Pruitt said. “Our goal is going to be to try and get kids out and get them into football. When I was here, we had a heck of a youth league, but some years ago, they stopped playing Pop Warner football and haven’t had it at all. They started it back last year, but a lot of these kids just grew up not playing football, so they played basketball and baseball and that’s what they fell in love with.”

He said it’s tough to compete with those sports during the summer.

“Nowadays you can play baseball and basketball year-round,” Pruitt said. “Their summer program involves competing against kids that are going and staying in a motel and swimming in the pool during the day and then eating Outback…we’re running sand pit and pulling sleds and stuff like that during the summer. A lot of kids just don’t want to do it anymore, so it’s a constant battle.”

This fall’s schedule will include home games against Palatka (Senior Night on Aug. 28), Fort White, Terry Parker (Jacksonville) for Homecoming and Father Lopez (Daytona Beach).

The Tigers will travel to Rutherford (Panama City), Trenton, First Coast Christian (Jacksonville), Fernandina Beach and Paxon (Jacksonville).

The Tigers will host Lafayette (Mayo) on Aug. 14 in the Kickoff Classic.