By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

At some point soon, Denny Bryant will have a night’s sleep like none he’s had in a long time, in at least the last 18 months or so.

He and his sister became caretakers for their parents, through mutual hospitalizations and a broken hip suffered while leaving the hospital, to their mother passing away last winter and their father taking up residence in an assisted living facility and then facing a second cancer battle.

Bryant was coaching football at Perry, and heading up the baseball program, while trying to catch son Carson pitching at the College of Charleston. And then there were those two blood transfusions after a bleeding ulcer.

It was a battle to slow down and pace himself.

Not anymore.

A tumor was found in March between his seventh and eighth cranial nerve, and while not cancerous, it was enough for Bryant.

“I was like, ‘Man, the good Lord is just telling me, ‘Look, you need to step back and take care of yourself,’” Bryant said in a Thursday afternoon chat with The Central Georgia Sports Report.

Bryant posted on social media Wednesday night his resignation, coming just short of two weeks after the season-ending playoff series loss to North Oconee.

He kept quiet about the situation after the March diagnosis and doctor visits until updating the Panthers’ baseball team right before that playoffs-opening battle with North Oconee, but nothing else.

Bryant and wife Melissa were driving back from watching Carson in Wilmington, N.C., last weekend.

“I guess we kind of made a decision on the way there and on the way back,” said Bryant, facing radiation treatment. ““Fifteen hours to talk about it. She got to the point where she was like, ‘I’ have had enough. Let me scroll through Tik Tok.’”

They put the debate on hold until the way back. He decided, and she knew it before he told her.

“You don't need my permission. I've supported you for 26 years. What makes you think I ain't supporting you now?”

Said Bryant: “I just needed her to say, ‘Hey, look, I got your back.”

Considering they’ve been together since seventh grade …

Bryant told his team on Tuesday, and then the Perry administration.

He won’t say “never” about coaching again, but hasn’t thought about it. He plans to be teaching somewhere in Houston County next year.

More tests and treatment – as well as watching Carson and the Cougars as much as possible – are next on the agenda.

As easy as the decision was – under difficult circumstances – Bryant and his wife did have a few mild debates during discussions.

“ ‘Hey, look, you know you’re 10 wins from (becoming) the winningest coach at Perry,’” Bryant said. “ ‘In six years. You’re averaging over 22 wins a year.’”

Bryant’s age has rendered such accomplishments less relevant than, say, thinking about that 15 or 20 years ago. Still, he couldn’t quite ignore it.

Then again, health re-entered the conversation.

“There are some things that were still kind of tugging at me,” the 49-year-old said. “ ‘All right, look, you can make it one more year.’ But at the end of the day, the good Lord may not have me here one more year. I hope He does. I hope He has me here a lot more years.

“I was 10 wins away … which means nothing if you’re six feet under.”

Bryant leaves the program in a much better place.

His 122 wins rank second in program history, behind Dave Crockett, who is on the Houston County Board of Education and remains close to the program.

“It’s almost like he was the most upset person that found out,” Bryant said.

The Panthers went to the playoffs all six years, reached the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 twice, winning 11 postseason games along the way.

Perry won the 2022 region title and finished second three other times.

The Windsor grad and GISA All-State running back in 1996 played in college at Mercer, Andrew, and Valdosta State, beginning his coaching career while at VSU with Lowndes.

Bryant spent a dozen years at Jones County under Barry Veal in baseball and with Bill Young and Dwight Jones in football, adding a few seasons with the girls basketball program, and three years at Westside with David Daniell in baseball and Robert Davis in football.

He followed legendary head coach Jimmy Turner at FPD, adding a few years of softball during his six years with the Vikings.

The baseball team reached the Final Four in 2018, and the softball team reached Columbus both years.

He said it was the rare legitimate mutual decision for him to leave FPD – “I’m hard-headed … After five years, it was time for me to move on, it was time for them to move on.” – after 86 wins, and within 24 hours, Perry head football coach Kevin Smith was on the phone.

There were no head coaching positions available, but Bryant was fine serving as a two-sport assistant at a place that was the right fit for him and Carson. Plus, Melissa was already teaching in Centerville.

That was in 2019. COVID hit, and a year later, head baseball coach Tim Hutchens was ready for a change and more family time, and suddenly Bryant was back in charge.

Six successful seasons followed, along with plenty of life’s trials and tribulations, capped by March’s diagnosis, which followed Melissa observing her husband’s increase loss of hearing.

She steered him toward an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and soon enough, they had a situation.

And about two months later, a decision.

Another part of the discussion with his wife was semantics.

“She was like, ‘Are you really done, or do you need a break?’” Bryant said. “And those are two different things, you know what I mean?”

At first, he thought maybe he needed a break. He thought some more.

His dad has survived two cancers and a broken hip only to now battle COPD, and Bryant’s sister has led the caretaking of both Bryant parents

And there were the eight-hour round trips to watch Carson pitch, whenever possible, in the fall and spring. Summers aren’t what they used to be for coaches, so Bryant was involved in baseball and football camps and clinics and recruiting work.

Helping his sister and not racing back and forth from Charleston and having time to recover from treatment without the stress of a practice plan or tryouts or wondering if he’d be ready for football practice, it all added up.

Plus, Bryant became clear-headed about his career, having been a successful head baseball coach at two schools while being involved with successful programs and a few legendary coaches along the way.

More so, he is leaving with full heart, thanks to the other part of the job.

“I used to care about how many wins I had and how many of this and that,” he said. “Now that I think about it, what's really been the most giving thing about this profession is when you have former players call you.

“I think back to I had a kid that last year that came and sat down in my office, and I led him to Christ.”

He talked of his relationships with the late Terrance Gore at Jones County and with future Atlanta Brave Austin Cox at FPD, among others.

Bryant said he’s a fairly private person who mostly stays off social media, but he certainly sounded at peace during a conversation that lasted more than an hour.

“I honestly feel that I'm OK,” he said. “I feel the Good Lord's going to use me the way He wants to use me anyway. I have faith in that, so I'm not a worrier anyway.

“I don't worry about anything.”