A new football team will be making its way to Bryan County next year.

The Richmond Hill Pirates are a postgraduate football team coming to serve athletes in the area and across the country in the fall of 2025.

Postgraduate, or post-grad, athletics are similar to junior college athletics in that athletes can attend the program to help get themselves noticed by a four-year college. The key difference is that a postgrad athletics season runs for just one semester and does not take away from the college eligibility of participating players. 

“I best describe postgrad football as a grind,” Pirates head coach Brandon Ervin said. “It’s tough but rewarding at the same time because of the many opportunities it opens up for the kids.”

The “grind” refers to the plight of athletes that may have missed out on college recruitment in their high school years. That could be due to low GPA, where the Richmond Hill Pirates aim to help their players through the services of Richmond Hill Educational Coaching. Playing for a post-grad team is also said to be beneficial for local athletes that may have lacked film or playing opportunities in high school, or those that need extra time to mature and develop. 

“The type of kids we look for are predominantly kids coming out of high school with a chip on their shoulder,” Ervin said. “Those who understand the opportunity in front of them, and are ready to take full advantage of it to get to the next level.”

The Pirates will host a prospect camp next month on Saturday, January 25 at Henderson Park in Richmond Hill, their new home ground. At the camp, athletes will go through skills and drills, work in their individual position groups and finish with a 1v1 competition at their respective positions. 

“At the prospect camp, we will be looking for athletes of all positions,” Ervin said. “We want to find potential Pirates that we feel would be an asset and a great fit for the program.”

But with a brand new program comes a brand new staff. Coach Ervin will be coming in from Texas. His assistant, Coach Chad Few, will be coming from North Georgia, and his other assistant, Coach Nate Bradford, will be coming from Illinois. While they are looking to add a few more coaches, Ervin is excited about the current staff and future. 

“What I’m most excited about with this program is that it’s fresh,” Ervin said. “We have a young, vibrant coaching staff, who I believe are some motivated young guys. I’m just excited to be excited about them and the program.”

Once the camp is over, the Pirates will be recruiting prospective athletes in the area and around the country to play for them next fall. They look to have a competitive, challenging schedule. 

“Our official report date for will be July 14th,” Ervin said. “Once the players report, they will have a brief meeting that night and then it’s on to what I like to call ‘Grind Week’ where we will be getting them in camp shape for the season.”

The Pirates look to become a staple in the Richmond Hill community and hope to gather many recruits from the local high schools to build their program. All prospective athletes may contact them via their “X” page (formerly known as Twitter) to be recruited.