Photos by Ralph Demilio
In early December of 1974, John Brantley walked off the Booster Stadium field for the last time as a player and as a state champion quarterback, having led his Forest High Wildcats to a 46-6 victory over Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna to cap a 13-0 season. At that moment, Brantley had no idea the long, twisting road life would take him or that it would eventually lead back to his donning the Forest green and gold once again as head coach in an effort to revive a once-proud, but now struggling football program.
After playing at Forest, he would become starting quarterback at the University of Florida, where he also starred on the baseball team. With the Gators, Brantley would suit up next to his brother Scot, whose legendary Ocala status grew state- and nation-wide as a menacing linebacker for UF. Injuries would take their toll on both Brantley brothers and their senior seasons of 1979 would end early as a result. Though Scot would go on to a stellar eight-year career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League, John would hang up the spikes permanently and enter the workforce.
He went to work construction with his father in south Florida and returned not long after to Ocala for a successful career in the insurance business. Along the way, football called him back not as a player, but as a coach. His son, John, Jr., was a rising star quarterback himself, and when he went to play high school ball for Trinity Catholic under head coach Kerwin Bell, John, Sr. went with him as an assistant coach.
Bell built a juggernaut at TC, winning a state championship in 2005. After Bell left to coach in the college ranks, Brantley took over and kept the TC train rolling, winning the school’s second state title in 2010. All the while, Brantley’s alma mater, the Forest Wildcats, had settled into football mediocrity where the ghosts of Scot Brantley and Tyrone Young barely echoed through the hallways.
Having already retired from his position at Cheney Brothers, Brantley decided to call it quits as a football coach, leaving behind a legacy of championships at Trinity Catholic. Little did he know that as Forest’s prodigal son he would be summoned back to his old school to help restore the glory days of the Forest Wildcats. He answered the call and now runs the show at Forest, sporting those old familiar colors for the first time in 51 years.
Over the summer, Brantley sat down with The Ocalan for a conversation about his efforts to revive Forest football, his playing days in Ocala and Gainesville, the mentors he had along the way, the titles at Trinity Catholic, and even the current struggles of his legendary brother.
TO: Was getting back to Forest ever on your mind?
JB: I wasn’t looking to go to Forest High School. I had been at Trinity a combined 16 years, so I thought it was time to get out – I had done everything I needed to do. I got approached by Forest High School and they asked if I would be interested. The more I got to talkin’ the more I got to evaluating the situation, I thought it’d be kind of neat – it gives me a chance to go full circle, playing as a Wildcat and now coaching. My wife went to Forest High School and was a cheerleader; my daughter played tennis and was a cheerleader at Forest; my brother went there and my sisters went there. We’re Forest Wildcats. We’re a product of the Marion County School system.
TO: So, going back to Forest was never in the back of your mind?
JB: I was so involved with what I was trying to accomplish as a coach at TC and the development of players that I never thought of anything outside the box. I thought it would start there and end there as a high school coach.
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TO: How did it all start with you at Trinity Catholic?
JB: Back when we started, we had a fantastic coaching staff and I was a small part of it as a JV head coach and a running backs coach for the varsity. We had Kerwin Bell; we had big David Williams who played for the Gators and the Houston Oilers; we had Ricky “The Rocket” Nattiel who was a wide receivers coach. Besides those, we had Mark Hinterthan, who ended up being the head coach at Lake Weir.
TO: Was Trinity your first foray into coaching?
JB: No, it wasn’t. It’s funny how I got involved into coaching. I took young Johnny (his son) to start in the MCYFL, which our family helped start that league. I took him over to Jervey Gantt Field and he was playing with the junior Raiders and I pulled up and dropped him off and figured I’d just sit there and watch how this thing pans out. Mark Yandle was the head coach, and I’ve known Mark and his wife Henrietta for years. After about a quarter into practice, Mark came over to my truck and said, “Hey, I need you to do one of two things: I need you to get in your truck and get the hell out of here – I’m tired of watching your smirks and your looks and stuff – or get out here and start coaching!” Hell if I didn’t get off the truck and start coaching and I’ve been doing it ever since.
The ironic part was, I didn’t start coaching until I was 42 years old. I had gone through working in the insurance business, and that’s what gave me the time, with the residual income the way insurance is set up, the way you get paid, it gives you time in the middle afternoon to go coach and do things a lot of people don’t get to do.
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TO: With all those former Gators coaching at TC, it seemed John, Jr. was groomed for Florida, though he originally committed to Texas.
JB: Coach (Steve) Spurrier wanted him real bad, too (at South Carolina). He got recruited by everybody. Kerwin took him to the next level and that’s why I sent him to Trinity Catholic. He was the national Gatorade High School Player of the Year and went out to California and won the MVP of the Elite 11.
He committed to Texas and we went out there and talked to (coach) Mack Brown and he liked what he saw. But, after going out there two or three times in the summer, that 25-mile drive (to Gainesville) just seemed to make more sense than jumping on a plane every time he had to go to college, so he decided to go to Florida. Now was it the best move? I don’t know. I think it was the best move from the standpoint of where he is today in medical sales and so many people know him. Going to the University of Florida, knowing he’s going to live in the state of Florida – lives in Ocala – being a Florida Gator was the best thing for him.
TO: You give a lot of credit to Kerwin Bell for demonstrating how to be a successful coach. There are others, though, that had great influence on you.
JB: I played for Brent Hall (at Forest) and there were no shortcuts to winning championships. You had to work, and I don’t care who you are – best player or worst player. My philosophy is ‘work,’ and I got that from Brent Hall.
I got to play for Coach Spurrier when he came on as an assistant (at Florida) in 1978 when I was starting quarterback. So, I got around that imagination and that offensive mind and learned a lot from Coach Spurrier and what he looked for and expected. The combination of Brent Hall and Coach Spurrier and then getting with Kerwin Bell who had a great career at Florida then played 12 years in the NFL and CFL – I was around and watched what it takes to be a good head coach, and I basically formulated my culture and what I believed in based on what I saw from those three guys.
TO: It sounds like Brent Hall’s early influence on you may have had the biggest impact?
JB: I would say so, because of the work ethic and the toughness that it takes to be a champion. That team (1974 state champion) we played on, we had a couple good players – yes, Scot Brantley was an unbelievable high school player – but, overall, we were just kids that played together, worked together and accomplished it. It wasn’t a bunch of great athletes running around; it was a friggin’ team that Brent Hall put together with a mindset that nobody’s gonna beat us, and they didn’t.
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TO: Brent Hall was an old-school disciplinarian-type coach. How much of his style do you incorporate into yours?
JB: Coach Hall, today he’d last about 30 minutes on the practice field – probably end up in jail having a conversation with a kid. But, let me tell you, kids want to be pushed and kids want discipline even if they don’t act like it. I’m finding that out at Forest. I’m bringing that culture that I believe in, and I’m not saying what they’ve done in the past is wrong, but I’m bringing what I know and what I’ve done to bring success to Trinity Catholic. I’m using those same guidelines and makeup that I’ve used in the past and so far, it’s working.
I’ve got 144 kids out at practice now. They have worked hard; they have done everything we asked over the offseason. They’re just looking to be pushed and we have discipline in that locker room and I hope it equates to Ws.
TO: Is there any sense of nostalgia for you coming back to Forest?
JB: Well, it’s special. But, I could be at another school and I would have the same attitude and same structure of doing everything and finding the best coaches I can for these kids. Just because I took that TC decal and made it into a Wildcat, my attitude hasn’t changed. So much time has passed – we’re not the same school that I went to on Fort King – it’s a new building. But, you do find yourself taking a bit more pride in it because you are a Wildcat – that’s something I cannot change and I don’t want to change. I was a graduate of Forest High School; I was part of the first ninth-grade class that was Forest High School and they can’t ever take that away. Now, I’ve got to do my job to put the best product on the field.
TO: What are your most vivid memories as a player at Forest?
JB: The evolution of that football team, going from that sophomore year we were 7-3, then junior year 8-2, then 13-0 state championship. I played all three sports (football, basketball and baseball) my freshman and sophomore years and I was walking to basketball practice and Coach Hall walked by me and in his manner said, “If you’d spend more time being a football player, we’d be a hell of a lot better football team” and just walked by. That sticks in my head today. That’s when I cut out basketball, but still played baseball.
I thought the turn at Forest High School was when we were 8-2 then got invited to play in the Sunshine Bowl against a very good Tarpon Springs team. They came up to Booster Stadium and we beat them pretty good. What that did was give us the momentum going into the offseason knowing we could do something special because we had a lot of kids coming back.
TO: What stands out about that 1974 season?
JB: We started out and nobody knew much about us, and about the fourth game of the year we played (Gainesville) Buchholz. They came down here and were the number one team in the state of Florida and we beat them 41-0 and that put us on the map.
TO: And the championship win over Chaminade?
JB: We beat them pretty good. I remember there were a couple of Shula boys on that team and Coach (Don) Shula was at that game up here in Ocala. You talk about breaks: Back then you didn’t have to go Miami or Tallahassee or Orlando to play the championship game – you were either in the north or the south to hold that game. We got to play all three of our playoff games and the state championship game in Booster Stadium, so that was kind of special.
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TO: So win a state championship in 1974, then it’s off to play for the University of Florida.
JB: Coach (Doug) Dickey gave me an opportunity and I was very appreciative of that. I wasn’t that big – I signed at Florida at 5-10, 156 pounds. It was fun; Ioved every minute of it. I love being a Gator.
TO: But when you were little, you hadn’t necessarily dreamed of being a Florida Gator, did you?
JB: Before my family moved to Ocala, we lived in Greenville, South Carolina; so, growing up Georgia was my favorite team. I loved Georgia – I hate to say that and the Gator people go crazy. I got recruited by Auburn, Miami, FSU and Florida, but I didn’t get recruited by Georgia. (Georgia head coach Vince) Dooley came down to recruit Scot while I was a freshman at Florida, and I was home when he got there. He was early and the South Carolina coach was there, so I told him I would go with him to check into the Ramada Inn and by the time we got back, the South Carolina coach would be done. He knew of me and we got to talkin’ and I started reeling off his ’66, ’67 and ’68 starting lineups right there at the table. He looked at me and gave me a gold Georgia coin and said, “John, let me tell you something” – and I’ll never forget it – “if I’d a known what you just told me, I’d a signed you just for that.”
TO: You played on the Florida JV team your freshman year, then moved up to varsity for the 1976 season. You sat the entire year – what was that about?
JB: We’re playing Houston and we’re up big. Coach (Dickey) brought me up in the middle of the third quarter and said, “Here’s the deal, you can go play right now or take a redshirt, and I’m ready to change the offense that’ll be better suited for you.” That’s when he was bringing in Spurrier. “It’ll be better suited to you as a thrower.”
I’ll never forget that. The stadium’s packed, we’re winning big and I got a chance to go get in a varsity game and he put his arm around me and gave me his choices, and he would have let me go out and play and give up a whole year of eligibility. I said, “You know what, Coach? I like that second option. I’ll go back here and I’ll get ready to play next year and just take a redshirt.”
What it did is, it gave me another year of growth, get my school in line. But, it also gave me a chance to be in the same class with my brother, so that was kind of neat.
TO: Injuries seemed to plague your college career. Do you ever think “what if?” when looking back at what might have been?
JB: Probably in baseball. My last year at Florida in the spring, I got a high-low hit that broke my fibula and that kind of did me in a little bit. I still played after that, but you’re never the same. That was the same time that Scot had the big head injury – mom and dad were getting all frazzled by everything that was going on; it just seemed like one thing after another. We got a broken leg, thumb, Scot’s head injury, and he had other injuries like a torn ACL against Utah at homecoming at Florida Field. There comes a time when you just throw your hands up and say, “enough’s enough.”
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TO: In 1979,both yours and Scot's careers ended in the same game. That must have been surreal.
JB: Against Georgia Tech, Scot got kneed in the head that knocked him out, then in the third quarter I turned up the right side and my right heel hit one of those plastic cups that the students would throw and it shot out and my hamstring just tore. That night, Scot and I were in side-by-side beds in the infirmary at the University of Florida. That’s when we knew we had enough, but I played my final year of baseball.
TO: Your baseball teams were pretty good at Florida, weren’t they?
JB: I had a ball playing baseball. With (manager) Jay Bergman, we won 40 games every year. One year, we were one game from going to the College World Series and Paul Molitor beat us by himself, basically. We got to the championship game of the regional finals in St. Paul/Minneapolis and Molitor put on a show for the University of Minnesota. That was fun.
TO: Your brother Scot stuck with football and had a great professional career. Still, all that pounding has taken its toll on him.
JB: It’s a situation where it all stems from all those concussions he had. He had a bunch in high school; he had concussions probably when he didn’t know he had a concussion. He played the game hard at Florida and then he had the big head injury then eight years in the NFL. Fast forward, all of that has just deteriorated his health. Today, mind-wise he’s pretty good – he can have a conversation like this. He can tell you about playing in the Sun Bowl in 1976 against Texas A&M, but he can’t tell you what he had for breakfast. He can’t walk; the only time he basically leaves the house now is if he has a doctor’s appointment or something medical he has to do.
TO: But coming out of high school, Scot Brantley was all-everything. What else do you remember about his recruitment?
JB: Coach (Bear) Bryant would tell you back then, that was probably the toughest loss he took on the recruiting trail was not getting Scot Brantley. Scot told him, “Ya’ll have been doing so well winning, I want to be a part of something new and see if Florida can do something, so I’m going to be a Florida Gator.”
TO: The University of Florida runs through your family’s blood. Both you and your son were starting quarterbacks for the Gators and Scot is still the second-leading tackler in school history despite missing almost an entire season. Does this influence you on where to guide your players to the next level?
JB: If you know you’re going to live in a state the rest of your life go to a state school – that’s what I tell my kids all the time. I don’t care if you go to FSU, Miami, UCF, USF – if you think you’re going to live in the state of Florida, go to a school where everybody can keep up with you.
I make sure I’m not a little pipeline to the University of Florida. If my kids went to Florida, they just wanted to be a Gator. I got a kid at Miami right now and I’ve got a kid at SMU; I’ve got them all over the place. I tell my kids, “Go where you’re going to be happy. If you go tear up your knee in that first year and you’re sitting in that room by yourself with crutches, where are you going to be the happiest?” Hopefully, it’s going to be closer to home than far away.
TO: So, it’s back to Forest after winning nearly 100 games at Trinity Catholic. The Celtics are on the schedule this year, so is that one drawing special attention?
JB: Trinity Catholic’s 3-0 against Forest High School, so Trinity’s supposed to beat Forest and that’s what I’m going to tell my kids. That game’s circled, I’m not going to kid you. That’s going to be a big game. It’ll be hard walking into that stadium with a different colored uniform.
Editor’s note: On September 5, Trinity Catholic spoiled Brantley’s homecoming with a nailbiting 16-10 win over the Wildcats when Forest’s potential winning drive stalled in TC territory with less than a minute remaining. Despite the loss, it was still the most competitive game Forest had played against TC.
TO: The Forest Wildcats have not enjoyed a winning record since 2017, so are the goals tempered a bit to give the program time to grow?
JB: I’m there to win a state championship. Can we? I know it’s a hard road, but every day I wake up with the intent of how am I going to win a state championship? It involves good players, scheming and doing the things you need to do every day to be successful. If you don’t have your team believing they can win a state championship, you’re just out there for the wrong reasons.
What’s got me so excited is that of the 144 players, we’ve only got 12 seniors. I’m not saying we’re just building this up, because I don’t know how much time I’ve got left. I’m trying to win today. Our goal is to win every game and be as successful as we can.
The future of this program is outstanding from what I see. You’ve got a lot of kids that are hopefully going to be part of something special this year and we’re going to grow from that.