The town is calm on an August day after a downpour. A 1950s Chevrolet pickup vehicle that has rusted through lies motionless next to the main plaza. Everyone in this area is aware of one another’s business. There’s a stronger sense of kinship, particularly with Bainbridge’s favourite son, Kirby Smart.
In the southwest corner of Georgia, Bainbridge rises out of miles of farmland. When a Walmart and McDonald’s appear alongside the road, it’s an unusual sight. Instead of skyscrapers, there are oak trees blanketed with Spanish moss.
“We saw him on the little league fields and the midget football fields,” Bainbridge High School principal Tommie Howell said. “We watched him grow up. He’s one of our children.”
Teachers, coaches, teammates — everybody’s proud that they interacted with Smart at one point or another. Even Stan Killough’s wife, an Auburn graduate, rooted for Alabama because Smart coached there.
Everybody knows Smart’s name these days, but they knew him first in Bainbridge. And early on they recognized there was something special about him. The competitiveness, the drive, the focus, the intensity. Those characteristics defined him and have carried him to where he is today.
“We always knew he was going to be successful,” said Killough, the athletic director at Bainbridge. “Did we always know he was going to be the head coach at the University of Georgia? No. We didn’t know that, but we knew he was going to be successful.”
He stands in a classic yearbook pose: right arm holding a tree branch, eyes transfixed on the camera, mouth slightly open. His haircut hasn’t changed in 20 years. Frankly, he looks pretty much the same.
Likes: sports, winning. Dislikes: putting up with ignorance; waking up for school. Plans After Graduation: Attend U.G.A. for football, major in business and find a wonderful wife. Remembered For: being intense in competition.
Sure enough, Smart would go on to play safety at Georgia, major in finance at the Terry College of Business and marry Mary Beth Lycett, a former Georgia basketball player. Although everything in the previous sentence is true, the last line is the one that defines Smart the most.
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