File:Football 2018, 50 Year Anniversary at Brunswick High School from The Frederick News-Post, September 20. 2018.jpg

Summary

School 2018

Brunswick football perseveres over 50 years

One of the smallest schools in the state, Railroaders set to celebrate milestone anniversary

   By Greg Swatek from The Frederick News-Post, September 20, 2018

BRUNSWICK — At halftime last week in Boonsboro, things had already fallen apart for the Brunswick High football team.

The Railroaders trailed Boonsboro by 29 points. Two key defensive players had left the game due to injury on a team not big enough to sustain many. Everything was noticeably deflated from the previous two weeks, according to coach Jerry Smith, when Brunswick rolled over Northern Garrett on the road and Clear Spring at home, filling the players and coaches, alike, with joy confidence and hope.

At this first real low point of the season, Smith stood before his players, heads bowed and quiet, and declared, “Your effort defines who you are.”

This Friday night, Brunswick will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its football program. A banner will be unfurled to commemorate the occasion at halftime of the Railroaders’ game with Frederick High, and Brunswick is hopeful that members of its very first team will be on hand to be recognized.

Much like the first half in Boonsboro, the program has been through the ringer over the course of its history, most recently surviving the first two winless seasons in program history in 2015 and ‘16. At various points, it was unclear if there would be enough players to field a team or enough healthy bodies to finish a game. The junior varsity program was folded and then brought back.

Yet, through it all, in a true testament to the perseverance of one of the smallest schools in the state, in an age where a growing number of schools are folding their programs due to a lack of interest or safety concerns, Brunswick is still playing football 50 years to the date of its first game, a 9-6 loss to Smithsburg on Sept. 21, 1968.

“The one thing that has always stuck out with me, and I talk about it with our guys all of the time, is just the toughness that this town breeds,” Smith said. It’s one of the first things he noticed when he moved into town as an eighth-grade student.

“People don’t care about how wealthy or poor we are. They just work,” he said. “We all support each other. That is truly what Brunswick is about. It’s great to come back here [after leaving for other coaching jobs] and say I am from here now. I have been here 20-something years.”

Brady Snoots, the Railroaders’ senior quarterback, is old enough to realize how much football has changed at Brunswick over the course of 50 years.

“Before, they’d throw the ball two times a game,” Snoots said. “Now, they throw it two times a drive.”

Yet the blue-collar work ethic has remained constant, lifting the Railroaders to their lone appearance in the state title game in 1999 and trips to the state semifinals in 2005, ‘10 and ‘12, as well as carrying them through the more turbulent seasons.

As the program prepares to celebrate a milestone, there is a growing sense that it has really turned a corner following one of the lowest points in program history that saw Brunswick lose 22 straight games from Nov. 7, 2014 to Sept. 1, 2017.

The Railroaders (2-1) dealt with a long bus ride and weather delays to beat Northern Garrett 21-0 in the season opener on Aug. 31, arriving back home long after midnight.

Then, the following week, they rolled to a 41-6 victory over Clear Spring in their home opener behind a near flawless passing performance from Snoots, who was 10-for-12 for 180 yards and four touchdowns.

“It’s like a totally different program now,” said Snoots, who did not experience a win as a freshman and a sophomore. “The school is into it now. The players want to be here. It’s a totally different atmosphere.

“Two years ago, we had no confidence at all. We went into games knowing that we were going to lose. Now, it’s not really cockiness that we go into games with. It’s confidence.”

In the second half at Boonsboro, after Smith challenged them to maintain their effort, the Railroaders responded.

They scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Senior Layne Harich and freshman Devin Phillips each scored on short touchdown runs, and then Snoots found freshman Michael Souders on a 14-yard touchdown pass.

Fifty years later, effort remains the bedrock of Brunswick football.

“It’s part of the DNA of this town. That’s part of who we are,” Smith said. “We are just tough kids and tough people who find a way to keep working. Put your head down, put your nose to the grindstone and keep going.”