As you drive down NW 39th Avenue in Gainesville, you’ll find a school where the competitiveness in multiple sports never rests.
As you sit or chat on campus with Athletic Director Billy Pankey, you feel the pride of the school as he calls it “Buchholz Everything School,” a place where cross country, football, volleyball, basketball and baseball demand excellence.
Pankey presents the macro-level blueprint the school has for success. A phone call with basketball coach Elliot Harris shares the grit and dedication the program is built on.
The Buchholz Bobcats for the past five years have sustained success in high school sports. Behind this success isn’t a big budget or private-school recruiting privileges,it’s a culture that has been built.
Administrative accountability, coaches who enforce a year-round standard and a deep-rooted community culture treat every sport, student and program as a source of pride for the school.
Pankey, in year two of being the athletic director and having spent 21 years at the school, including as the wrestling coach, has watched the campus evolve into a regional powerhouse that refuses to be boxed into a single sport.
“It was really remarkable the year we had last year,” Pankey said. “There was a point last year when we hosted four regional playoff games.”
Boys cross country’s back-to-back state titles, football’s five straight state semifinal appearances, boys basketball’s Elite Eight berths, girls basketball’s round of 32, girls volleyball’s sweet 16 appearance, baseball’s back-to-back state runners-up and boys and girls’ round of 16 in tennis. The list goes on and on with the deep playoff runs each sport at the school makes.
In a city such as Gainesville, where the University of Florida Gators headline the sports narrative, Buchholz has created its own dominant program. A reality that the athletic department and the school administration have embraced.
“One of the things we started calling this summer is the ‘Buchholz Everything School,’ Pankey said.
With the wide range of success, the strive for excellence isn’t limited to the sporting field. For Pankey and the administration, the identity is rooted in a commitment that runs through the hallways, stages and the athletic courts on campus.
“Not only is it academically, but it’s athletically and in performing arts and in band,” Pankey said. “Our admin is just totally committed to Buchholz, committed to athletics. They’re committed to excellence in everything they do.”
When you have consistent success in many sports, that success creates a reputation which leads to attracting the top talent in the county. Chris Malphurs is part of a baseball coaching staff that has led the team to three straight state runner-up finishes. He attributes the campus-wide success to the level of competition for state titles the school has been in.
“When you got a campus full of winners, it makes things attractive, so we want to be attractive to the best athletes in the area,” Malphurs said. “Winning does that, that’s the key to it, you can’t recruit in high school there’s a lot of programs that do that, Buchholz recruits for itself.”
The respiration has been built, and the name the Bobcats have built attracts the talented athletes to the school.
“We’re fortunate that we’ve got great administration, we’ve got a great culture at Buchholz, where the best athletes want to come,” Malphurs said. “When they get on campus, that’s when we build our teams and build these athletes.”
Having the macro leadership on the same page is crucial for success, but on the courts and fields, the coaches ensure the vision happens.
On the basketball court, Harris, a longtime coach in Gainesville high school sports, has taken the mantle of leading the Bobcats.
Harris’ perspective cuts straight to the core of what’s different from public school athletics and the rest. While private schools can recruit talent on the open market, Harris and his staff must take local kids who walk through the gym doors and build an identity from scratch.
“The private schools are a little different; they can recruit and do whatever they want to do,” Harris said. “If I don’t have gritty, defensive players, I can’t say that we’re a gritty, defensive team. I have to mold what we do every year around our personnel.”
The identity of the teams requires the coaches at the school to work from the root up to build that competitive identity. Harris, for example, measures his program success by the hours spent off the court.
“Our kids get up at 6 in the morning, and they shoot. We lift after school,” Harris said. “Those are the things people don’t see; it’s not just about when the lights come on. You have to do what it takes before that.”
For Harris, it’s not just about winning games; it’s a vehicle to build accountable, driven young adults who are prepared for whatever comes next. Buchholz may be known for success in recent years in sports, but also some may know it’s produced highly named talent in those sports.
Ben Shelton won the Class 4A individual state tennis singles title in 2019 at Buchholz before winning the NCAA title at UF and becoming one of the top players in the pro circuit. Two-time NBA Finals champion Vernon Maxwell began his basketball journey at the school in the early 1980s and was recently honored with his jersey retired by the school in 2021. World Series champion in 2013 and World Baseball Classic champion Andrew Miller attended the school as well before he went on to play at North Carolina.
Just a small count of the pro players who have graduated from the school shows the success the sports program has had. Playing for the Gators now, five-star recruit Myles Graham and four star Justin Williams have been notable names to come out of Buchholz.
As a senior, Graham played a crucial role in the Bobcats third straight final four appearance.
Joining Graham on Florida football this season is Williams, a recent Buchholz grad who in his junior year had more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving. This was the first time a player in Florida had more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season since former NFL player Devin Hester did so in 2002.
For Williams, the decision to wear the Buchholz uniform was rooted in family footsteps and community ties.
“My family was familiar with coach (Mark) Whitt (Whittemore); my brother went there, my mom went there,” Williams said. “Football team’s pretty good, so yeah that was really my decision going there.”
During Williams’ freshman year on JV, playing alongside quarterback Trace Johnson, the team’s locker room was driven by momentum. The heartbreak of watching the varsity team play deep into the playoffs and fall short was fuel for determination.
When the Bobcats broke through, reaching the state championship game in Williams’ senior year, it was a dream come true for a roster built of hometown kids from Gainesville.
“It felt amazing because it wasn’t the highest peak Buchholz has been at in a really long time,” Williams said. “And so, to do that it was really special for me and all my teammates.”
The bond and connection Williams shared spans across the campus and the belief in being an “everything school.” From cross country, basketball or baseball, the school shares a collective pride.
On the football field, the standard is enforced by coach Mark Whittemore.
“Every practice you just give your best cause, honestly, you don’t want him to get on you,” Williams said. “He’ll always coach you up; he’ll let you know when you do something good, which I feel some coaches don’t really do”
The guidance and mentorship from Whittemore and the staff at the school were a factor that helped Williams prepare for the leap to the collegiate level. Now wearing the orange and blue with the Gators, Williams sees the same foundational values with coach Jon Sumrall that he had with Whittemore in high school.
“I definitely see some similarity in Sumrall as coach Whitt; they kind of have the same coaching style and some of their beliefs and ways of coaching,” Williams said. “It just reminds me a lot of coach Whitt and what he believed in too. So I feel like it prepared me for that.”
