Head Coach Joey Wiles has left St. Augustine High School.
That’s a sentence many people though they’d never read. After 20 years, one state championship, 17 consecutive playoff berths, and 198 wins, Coach Wiles decided it was time to hang up the whistle. He will be taking the assistant athletic director position at Flagler College.
However, St. Augustine isn’t left out in the cold after his departure. St. Augustine alumnus and former assistant coach Brian Braddock has accepted the head coaching vacancy left by Wiles, and leaves Mandarin High School after helping to rebuild their program.
Braddock, who played for the Yellow Jackets from 1996-1998, returned to coach there after graduating from Florida State. In 2010 he was promoted to defensive coordinator, and in 2013 he left for the head coaching position at Mandarin. There, he racked up a 23-10 record, which includes 12-1 last year, Mandarin’s first ever undefeated regular season.
“Obviously St. Augustine is a great school and one of the great cities in America,” Braddock says. “Also, it happens to have a great football program that Coach Wiles built, and it’s in a great school district.”
Many of the assistant coaches will be staying on as well, as Braddock has worked with them before.
Wiles is, understandably, ecstatic.
“Selfishly, I wanted to be able to enjoy coming back and walk out to practice or a game and know the coach of the program is one of my close, personal friends. There could not have been an easier transition for the school and the community and for Brian. The program is in great hands. The community can rest easy.”
St. Augustine has a schedule that lends itself easily to wins, especially over Menendez, Creekside, Palatka, Ed White and Middleburg. St. Augustine will have to get past district rivals Bartram Trail and Nease, who ended their undefeated season last year for the first time since the Tebow era.
St. Augustine Yellow Jackets
Wiles Takes Position At Flagler
Written by Kim Hoy
Photo by St. Augustine High School
