Forrest R. Pruner
When you think of track and cross country, you think of a coach named Forrest R. Pruner. Forrest was the first track and cross country coach at Crestview High School. He remained the Head Track Coach at Crestview for 31 years, with the first 6 years at Union High School prior to the consolidation of Savannah and Union Schools systems. Crestview was a Class A school most years, with an occasional year as “AA”. One of the things that Forrest was most proud about was his team’s success for the 18 years it was in the old Johnny Appleseed Conference, which was a mixture of Class A, AA, and AAA schools. The Cougars held records in 9 of the 15 events. Pruner’s teams were Regional Champs from 1975-78 and were second in the State Meet in 1976. Crestview placed in the top 20 teams in the sate meet and 13 track and cross country teams qualified for state competition. Pruner started the Crestview Indoor Invitational in 1985 and served as meet manager for many area contests.
He was the Head Coach for the Crestview girls track team in 1985-87. During this time, the Lady Cougars were Regional Champions and placed second in the State, with two state individual champions in 1985. In 1989, Forrest accepted an invitation from Ray Mitchell of Lexington High School to coach sprinters and hurdlers. He remained at Lexington for nine years until 197, which gave him a total of 40 years of coaching track. While at Lexington, he helped another 6 young men place in the state meet.
Pruner started the cross country program at Crestview in 1962 and continued as coach for 25 years. During this time, Forrest had 10 teams place in the state meet and had a dual meet record of 179-49. His teams won three regional titles, seven districts, six Johnny Appleseed Conference Championships, and eight individual conference champions.
Forrest and his wife, Sally, have four: children: Debra, Keith, Scott, and Daphne Galloway and they reside in Shiloh. He is a 1960 graduate of Ashland University.
Nominator: Karen Pruner
