It was one of those July days in Middle Tennessee. The punishing kind, where shade is at a premium, no one's clothing stays dry and forearms are seared by leaning against metal fences. Between those fences, 24 high school football teams had braved the blistering sun for hours, contesting a 7-on-7 tournament. It had, mercifully, ended by the afternoon, and 23 teams had long since vanished from Lebanon High School's campus into the air-conditioned comfort of a ride home. But not Pearl-Cohn. On an otherwise empty field, the Firebirds were crowded under a tent. Heart-to-heart sermons from assistant coaches to players, preaching toughness and dedication, rolled without an end in sight. “They got to hear it right now,” Pearl-Cohn coach Tony Brunetti said, watching approvingly from an adjoining tent. Crazy thing was they hadn’t performed poorly in the tournament. Pearl-Cohn reached the championship game before losing to powerhouse Oakland High. Nothing for the Firebirds to be ashamed of in that showing, but to Brunetti, it was the way they lost. “I want to finish strong,” he said. “If you beat us, you beat us. You don't beat us because we (were) mentally kind of pooped out. I felt like we mentally pooped out a little bit. That's all. I didn't like that.” He added: “We’ve got to step up and man up.”
Life's lessons as much as preseason prep for a football season, and the messages were landing with nodding Pearl-Cohn players when a golf cart carrying Lebanon High staffers pulled up, dutifully checking on the lingering team that was preventing them from closing up shop. We’re OK, Brunetti told them. As the cart puttered off into the heat, Pearl-Cohn’s team didn't budge. Why we are telling the Pearl-Cohn football story This season, The Tennessean’s staff is delving in-depth into Pearl-Cohn football in the hopes of relaying stories about a proud program that wants to tell them. We are calling the project, "Friday Night Fire." It is a community eager for you to understand why, as Brunetti attested: "We're different" at Pearl-Cohn. He's right, of course. They are. This has been one of the most successful football programs in the state for decades despite a relative lack of advantages and resources. Except Brunetti isn't just talking about football. He's referring to everything. “We’re not a private school. We're an inner-city school,” Brunetti said. “So we deal with a lot of things that jump out at you, from community to one-parent homes to kids not having food on the table. That's life . . . Helping the overall kid grow, helping support the parents where they need support, as men, that's what it's about. We ain't about just football.” Brunetti, 56, has been at Pearl-Cohn for nearly a quarter of a century, arriving in 2002 as an assistant before being promoted a few years later to head coach. He has been successful. He has had opportunities. Had he wanted, he could have left to be an assistant for a college program or lead some private school program with a huge support staff and sparkling facilities. But he hasn't. God put him here, he said, and there's still work to do. What would Brunetti want outsiders to know about Pearl-Cohn that he believes they don't? “People still have this old perception that Pearl is this bad school or a violent school,” he replied. “I've been there for 25 years. We've had some good times. We've had some bad times. We've made a lot of strides. We've made a lot of strides academically . . . We have evolved so much over the years that I think people don't understand we are a diamond in the rough. I really, truly believe that.” The challenges that Pearl-Cohn faces as a school and a community are real. That is a part of this story, but it’s only part of the story. To dwell on negative aspects of what’s lacking or holding back Pearl-Cohn, even if it is only to dispute misconceptions, would be a disservice. It would neglect what has made this so exceptional for so long. Many other high school communities are inspirational and supportive. But few others have needed to be what Pearl-Cohn football has become to so many over the years: A source of collective strength. It's an example of the power of sports in a community, but Pearl-Cohn isn’t some sob story. It isn't a cute Hollywood script. No one is feeling sorry for the Firebirds, nor should they. This is a dang good football program.
Pearl-Cohn has stars now and had them in the past Pearl-Cohn has players. That’s nothing new. Pearl-Cohn has always had players. The list of big-time athletes to go through the school “is insane when you sit back and look at it,” said Ron Slay, the former University of Tennessee basketball star and current radio and television analyst. Slay attended Pearl-Cohn in the 1990s, when the football program broke out under former coach Maurice Fitzgerald, winning two state titles and featuring future SEC standouts like John Henderson and Santonio Beard. “It started back then in the early '90s,” Slay said. “I'd compare it to a beacon of hope, a beacon of light . . . We come from the era of single-parent homes, especially in our time. It was going to take a village. It really took a village.” As an example, Slay recalled waking up at Fitzgerald’s home alongside “at least nine or 10” other students on game days. That wasn't a party. They were watching out for each other. Safety in numbers, and the group became so large that people started sleeping at a church instead. Because "anything could happen" once school let out, he said. "The football part is the easy part, actually," Slay said. "The hard part is getting to the game: 'Let's get everybody to the game safe and healthy.' It wasn't easy. We had some dips and valleys of it, but it's mostly highs once we got over that hump and got that first championship . . . It has carried over. Regardless of what's going in these neighborhoods, it's a pride that goes through. That's why the school is so important." "Even after we left (the school)," he added, "there was still a legacy left there that was kind of a blueprint to follow. And Brunetti came in, and he took the torch and ran." Building on Pearl-Cohn football's legacy The legacy remains tangible. Pearl-Cohn's staff is full of former players who've been through it. By now, this is a program conditioned to expecting, "We're going deep in the playoffs every year," Brunetti said. "They don't think nothing less than that." Brunetti oversees academics, working with players toward NCAA eligibility requirements while also using relationships with college coaches to make sure Pearl-Cohn's players get scouted. He can’t make a college program reach out, but he can make sure players get seen. The key, Brunetti said, is just “consistency and being present and being truthful and kids knowing that you love them inside and out. I've had the same phone number since ’02.” The Firebirds retain talent, and they also add it from elsewhere, with players wanting to join Pearl-Cohn’s team. Why? “We win. It’s really as simple as that,” Pearl-Cohn senior Lance Donaldson said. “People want to join a winning program, and once they do come in, they know that we've got this big family and this big community, it just makes it 10 times better.”
The Firebirds should be good again in 2026. They haven’t missed the playoffs since 2012. They went undefeated in 2023 and won the program’s third state championship. Last season, the Firebirds went 10-5, but they got hot late and reached the Class 4A finals before losing to Alcoa. A lot of talent is back. And if you doubted the renewed standard, you wouldn't be after sweating on that field in Lebanon. "All that right there was just love from the coaches," Donaldson said. "They know what we have." Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Exclusive: Pearl-Cohn football's story is one of strength, inspiration | Estes