- April 25, 2024
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Matanzas football player Branden Gilyard. Photo by Ray Boone
Branden Gilyard returns a punt against Spruce Creek. File photo
Starting as a defensive back in 2017, the Pirates’ Branden Gilyard wasn’t used to making the “big” tackles. That responsibility was usually left up to Matanzas’ outstanding senior defenders: Dru Bowens, Jarrett Patton and Tylee Austin.
All three of those players, who helped lead the Pirates to their second playoff birth in school history last season, are playing on college teams this fall.
So if an opposing running back or receiver breaks free of the first two levels of the defense, it’s now Gilyard’s responsibility to stop them.
“It’s tough,” Gilyard said. “There’s pressure, but I can take it.”
Gilyard, 17, has been a student at Matanzas High School all four years. He was on the junior varsity football team his freshman year and played his way onto the varsity squad as a sophomore. However, he bumped heads with then-head coach Robert Ripley, which led him to transfer to nearby Pedro Menendez that spring.
He soon decided he had made a mistake.
“I just realized that every coach I’ll have is going to be hard on me,” said Gilyard, who transferred back to Matanzas that summer. “It was just a learning experience. I had to mature and grow as a player.”
He started in the secondary his junior year. His highlight of the season: returning a fumble 96 yards for a touchdown on Sept. 22, 2017, in a win over Treasure Coast.
This season has been quite different, however. With a young and depleted roster, Gilyard is forced to play on both sides of the ball.
Every. Single. Play.
“I finally got the ball in my hands,” he said. “I’m just trying to make something happen. Every time I touch the ball, I see the end zone.”
Gilyard is one of the few seniors on this team.
The youth and inexperience are part of what’s plaguing the Pirates, who are 2-3 on the season with blowout losses to Flagler Palm Coast, Spruce Creek and Treasure Coast. Matanzas’ first-year head coach Don Mathews has spoken repeatedly about the team’s struggles with staying disciplined on the field and grasping the offensive and defensive playbook.
Gilyard’s experience has been invaluable for the Pirates.
“You can’t replace the leadership that he’s shown and the character that he’s shown,” Mathews said. “What he’s doing on the field is that hard work pays off. He’s irreplaceable.”
Mathews is part of the reason Gilyard opted to stay for his final season and not transfer to “greener pastures.”
“We’re like two peas in a pod,” Gilyard said of Mathews. “He’s been pushing me for the last three years. I knew I needed to finish out my last year with him. I left my sophomore year, and I realized that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. This year, I wasn’t going to just leave my team.
“I know they rely on me.”
