By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Glynn County Schools Athletics has hired a new softball coach at Brunswick High School. Brian Crawford will take over as head coach of the Lady Pirates for the 2026 season which begins in the fall. His hiring was announced today by Steve Waters, assistant superintendent of schools and athletic director for Glynn County Schools. Crawford is currently serving as the pitching coach for the Brunswick High baseball team. He was previously the head softball coach for the Lady Pirates and also the head coach for the BHS baseball team until stepping down after the 2020 season that was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic. He resigned to relocate elsewhere with family. In his previous stint with the Brunswick softball team, Crawford led the Lady Pirates to the state playoffs in three of his four seasons with the program. The 2016 team won 16 games and played in the second round of the state tournament. His Brunswick baseball teams reached the state playoffs in each of his first two seasons. The 2018 team won 18 games. Crawford’s coaching past also includes being the head baseball coach at Frederica Academy and an assistant coach for Brunswick, Camden County and Appling County. Prior to returning to Brunswick, he was a varsity baseball assistant at Whitewater High School in metro Atlanta, helping the team to a region championship and a 25-9-1 record during the 2022 season. Whitewater reached the second round of the state tournament that season. Crawford played high school baseball at Wayne County and went on to play for both Georgia Southern University and Valdosta State in college. He holds a bachelor’s degree in education and also a master’s degree in instructional technology. ...

By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Glynn County Schools Athletics has hired two new head coaches for Glynn Academy. Former Glynn Academy assistant Marquis Jones will be the new head coach for the GA boys basketball team while Stefanie Betz will become Glynn’s new girls volleyball coach. Steve Waters, assistant superintendent of schools who also serves as the county athletic director, announced the hirings this week. Both coaches were recently approved by the Glynn County Board of Education. Jones returns to Glynn after serving as the head boys basketball coach the last three seasons at McIntosh County Academy in nearby Darien. He worked under former GA head coach Terrance Haywood who stepped down as the Red Terrors’ coach following the 2023-2024 season. At McIntosh, Jones compiled a 59-30 record with the Buccaneers over his three seasons with the program. His 2024-25 team played for the Class A state championship, becoming the first team in school history to do so while also becoming MCA’s first team to reach the Final Four. Jones played high school basketball at Brunswick High under Chris Turner, who is still the program’s head coach. Jones scored over 1,000 points in his prep career and was named the Offensive Player of the Year in the region as a senior. He went on to play collegiate basketball at Ellsworth Community College and also the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. He graduated from college with a degree in business management. Glynn’s new volleyball coach is wrapping up her first year at the school. She has been teaching geometry at GA this school year. A former player at Western Carolina University, Betz spent 17 years in volleyball before coming to Glynn. She was an assistant coach at Venice (Fla.) High for seven years and helped the team to a state championship in 2012. She also served as head coach at the Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota for seven years. During her time there, the team increased from just 22 athletes and two teams to more than 65 players spread across four teams for middle school and high school. The Thunder won four district championships, qualified for the playoffs in six of her seven seasons, and advanced as deep as the Elite Eight in the state tournament. ...