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Callaway High graduate Jamal Bruce is having a full-circle moment. After four years at Callaway Middle and having served in multiple coaching positions at the middle and high school level since graduating Duke in 2015, Bruce is taking over as the Callaway Middle School head football coach, replacing a legendary coach Kerry Woodard.

“This is amazing, I’ve been looking for an opportunity like this for a long time,” Bruce said. “I have spent the last four years consistently picking coach (Woodard’s) brain.”

“I have been coaching for 35 years and I have been looking for the right person to pass it off to,” said Woodard, who will remain on as the Callaway Middle athletic director. “He truly represents everything we want at Callaway. I wouldn’t just hand it off to anybody.”

This will be the first time the Cavaliers have had a new head football coach in over two decades. Woodard has won countless games as the head coach of the Cavaliers and after 35 years coaching at various levels, he felt this was the right time to move on from coaching football.

“The wins and the losses never mattered, what mattered, it’s all about the relationship with the kids,” Woodard said.

“I don’t know how many games I won but I know I won more than I lost,” Woodard added, flashing a wry smile.

Woodard will remain on as the athletic director and will be providing guidance to Bruce, who enters a new stage of his life.

“I have been picking him and coach (Pete) Wiggins’ brains for years now,” Bruce said. “We have a real culture here now. When I was coming up, not a lot of people were talking about Callaway, but now everybody is talking about us.”

What epitomizes the full-circle feel of this moment is the fact that Bruce played for Woodard nearly two decades ago. Bruce was an enforcer on the defensive line during his days for Callaway Middle and Callaway High.

As a senior, Bruce posted 50 tackles, eight tackles for loss and five sacks and had 55 tackles and eight sacks during his junior season, being named a two-time first team all-region player in the process.

Bruce would go on to play 46 career games, where he drew 28 starting assignments. He totaled 68 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 4.0 quarterback sacks, three pass breakups, one fumble caused, one fumble recovery as a Blue Devil.

“When I was playing I was mainly focused on getting to the [NFL] but coach Wiggins always stressed to me the importance of an education,” he said. 

While Bruce has not suited up for a football game in over 10 years, he looks like he could still see game action. The newly-minted head coach has not lost any of his muscle mass, and if it was not for his outsized and upbeat personality, he might still come across as that same intimidating figure that put the pads on for Callaway back in the late 2000s.

Despite his outward exterior making him akin to the Incredible Hulk, he maintains a Bruce Banner intellect at all times. 

Bruce was a cerebral player, as evident by his All-ACC Academic Team honors. He has carried over that same high football IQ to the sidelines as a coach.

“I used to take him home from practice, take him to McDonald’s and get him a cheeseburger, and then to see him go on and get a full academic scholarship to Duke and graduate was special,” Woodard said. 

Hogansville and Callaway are home for Bruce. This is exactly where he wants to be, doing exactly what he wants to do.

“Being from here, I played with a lot of the kids’ parents or uncles and that kind of stuff. So to me, that’s the family atmosphere. Is what makes this place so special,” Bruce said. “I just want to change the way the kids work. I think we got a good group of kids, and I think we can get a lot more out of them than we’ve been getting.”