Capitol and Southern Lab fire FB coaches; LHSAA plans press conference

The Advocate

Friendship Capitol has terminated first-year head football coach/athletic director Corey Brownfield, and the move apparently triggered a domino effect that impacts one of the area’s most storied programs, Southern Lab.

A press conference at the LHSAA office that will involve LHSAA and Southern Lab officials is set for 4:30 p.m., according to a communication from LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine.

Southern Lab has won the last two LHSAA Division IV select football titles and was the runner-up in 2014. The Kittens were the 1A boys basketball runner-up in 2015 and Division IV runner-up last spring.

Brownfield previously served as Director of the Southern Lab School Foundation, where he worked as a liaison to the community who reached out schools ranging from preschool to middle school in an effort to boost SLHS’ enrollment.

A former Southern Lab and Grambling athlete, Brownfield also served as an assistant football coach for the Kittens for a portion of his time at the school that ended in 2015-16. First-year Southern Lab Director Herman Brister Jr. also confirmed an announcement was pending.

Brownfield said he has not been contacted by the LHSAA. He issued a statement that mentioned the LHSAA’s Bonine after retaining legal counsel.

“I was called into the (Capitol) Principal, Mr. Robert Lang’s office yesterday. He stated that he was letting me go due to some allegations he found out from Mr. Eddie Bonine,” Brownfield said. “He said he got a call from Mr. Eddie Bonine and he said he thought it would be in the school’s best interest if they let me go. I asked him why and he said the association (LHSAA) would contact me. Right now, I’m trying to find out what’s going on.”