Records are meant to be broken. It’s the way sports are played.
You look at the players who come before you, who once wore the same jerseys as you and had individual success.
At Glynn Academy, the boys soccer team has been a staple name altogether under head coach Bobby Brockman.
But, it’s the individual goal-scoring record that has stood out and been broken multiple times in the past few years.
Once held by Richie Cravens with 34 goals in a season, Gavin Swafford broke Cravens’s 20-year record with a penalty kick in the 2022 state playoff opener against Lovejoy.
That record stood for almost two years as a teammate of Swafford’s made the ranks as a once budding sophomore who made his full bloom to stardom in his senior year.
Jonas Coyle had intentions and aspirations of breaking the record of 35 goals, but in his eyes, it was more of getting Glynn back into title contention.
“My goal this year for the team, obviously I wanted to break the record, but I didn’t want to break the record by trying to hog all the goals,” Coyle said. “I took two PKs this year, I missed one and made one, but Chandler (Owens) took all the other PKs because I didn’t really care about those goals. I’d rather the team benefit more than me. I wanted the team to play more as a team than just individual players shining because I feel like that would benefit us making a run in the playoffs in the future.
“We have lost in the Elite Eight the past two years and it hasn’t really been close but that’s what I want to change. We have only had two Final Four teams under Coach Bobby Brockman, and I want to try and make it a third one. I think the best way of doing that is working as a team, we have the players to work as a team and the skills. We are going to work on it in practice this week and see what we can do.”
In the mindset of wanting the best for the whole team rather than just himself, Coyle knows that it was more than just Jonas Coyle when he looks at the trophy case with his illustrious 38 goals in a season.
“Yes, it is more than just Jonas Coyle, even though it is nice to finally have this record,” Coyle said with a smile. “At the beginning of the season, I said let me shoot for this even though my goal was really only 20/30 goals. But, I out-performed what I thought I was going to do.”
The last few weeks for Coyle have been a whirlwind in terms of record watch as it seemed Swafford’s record would be untouched until Coyle went on a rampant march to end the season.
Against Brunswick High, Coyle tied the individual game record by a Terror with seven goals and he had his chances to get his eighth but narrowly missed.
In the team’s senior night vs. Liberty County, Coyle rattled off four goals to tie the school record, and going into the game, he had two solutions — he would break the record or he would help defender Garrett Fauth score his first varsity goal.
“I wanted my friend Garrett — the other captain — I wanted him to get his first varsity goal,” Coyle said. “He hasn’t had one yet. That team wasn’t very good and he still doesn’t have one and probably won’t now since he plays defense the whole time and doesn’t go up the field. But I wanted him to get one varsity goal so we could just remember that and whenever I crossed it, it was going to hit his head and they own goaled it. The only outcomes I wanted were me breaking the record or him getting a goal, and none of it happened. It didn’t even go through my mind that there could be an own goal and none of it could happen.”
Devastated as he recalled that game because the importance of setting up his teammate was more important to him, Coyle still had his own chances to break the record.
The first time was against Richmond Hill in the team’s last regular season game before the Class 6A state playoffs.
Down 1-0 for the majority of the game, the Terrors earned a penalty kick and Coyle stepped up to the 12-yard spot. Feeling goosebumps with the possibility of bagging in the record breaker just as Swafford did two years ago, Coyle said he scuffed the penalty kick a little bit and left himself sitting on 35 goals as the team entered the first round of the Class 6A state playoffs.
Lined up with plenty of chances with balls being played to him down the wings or through the middle, Coyle saw his first few chances hit every part of the goal except the back of the net.
Then, the chance came.
Receiving a through ball from Oliver Van Boxel as he ran down the right wing and into the middle of the pitch with the ball at his feet, Coyle hit his strike to the far post and recalls the feeling of relief.
“Once I got that first goal I said finally to myself because I finally beat it and it just took a weight off my shoulders,” Coyle said. “After that, I got two more goals because I didn’t feel the weight of needing to break this record.”
Bagging a hat-trick and putting himself on 38 goals (averaging two goals a game) and better yet seeing his team into the Sweet 16 with a date with St. Pius on Friday at Glynn County Stadium, Coyle said the full focus is on the larger task at hand.
“40 is in the scope and we will see against St. Pius,” Coyle said. “They are a really good team. We will see what we can do. I’m not really thinking about that anymore, I’m thinking about how far our team can make it in the playoffs.”