TIFTON — Fitzgerald High Purple Hurricanes football coach Robby Pruitt began his high school coaching career in Jacksonville. At the same time in another school in the Florida city, Jim Scroggins was also coaching.

After a long, successful career in Florida, Pruitt would eventually go on to Fitzgerald in 2000, where he has made the Purple Hurricanes a perennial state power.

Scroggins stayed in Florida until this year when he became the head coach at Cook High School in Adel.

The two coaches will see their careers again intersect Friday when Scroggins takes his Cook High Hornets to Fitzgerald to face Pruitt and the Purple Hurricanes.

“We have known each other a long time,” Scroggins said of his friendship with Pruitt.

The Fitzgerald coach also praised Scroggins and the remainder of the Cook coaching staff.

“I know their coaches well. They are all good men,” said Pruitt.

While the coaches have a lot of respect for each other, both also want their teams to perform well Friday night.

Fitzgerald will enter the game with a 7-1 overall record, coming off of their first loss of the year, 28-14 last Friday at Thomasville. Cook will enter with a 6-2 overall mark. The Hornets have also fallen to Thomasville, 28-0, while Cook’s other defeat came at the hands of Early County, 21-14. Fitzgerald defeated Early 24-21 Oct. 19 in Blakely.

The Cook contest will be Fitzgerald’s third straight against either team that is ranked among the top 10 teams in the state or has been ranked this season.

“Right now we’re beat up. We have a lot of kids hobbling with shoulders and ankles,” said Pruitt. “We will just have to fight through it.”

Those injuries could have played a part in the loss to Thomasville as the Bulldogs jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead over the Hurricanes.

“They were up on us, 21-0, before the second quarter had even begun good,” said Pruitt. “I was proud of the way we fought back. We outscored them the rest of the way and we had a dropped touchdown pass and had a kickoff return called back because of a penalty.”

Scroggins noted Fitzgerald’s late success against Thomasville.

“They moved the ball a lot better against Thomasville than we did,” the Cook coach said.