Kent Briggs, a former Western Carolina quarterback and head coach who later guided Cherokee High School to its first state football championship, has died. He was 68.
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Western Carolina announced Briggs' death, remembering him as a longtime member of the Catamount football community whose coaching career spanned more than three decades.
A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Briggs played quarterback at Western Carolina from 1976 to 1979. He was part of four consecutive winning seasons, the program's longest such stretch at the time.
Briggs began his coaching career at Western Carolina under Bob Waters, serving as a graduate assistant before receiving his first full-time position in 1982. He was on the staff when the Catamounts won a school-record 10 games and advanced to the 1983 NCAA Division I-AA championship game.
He later spent 11 seasons as an assistant at North Carolina State and two seasons at Connecticut before returning to Western Carolina as head coach in 2002.
Briggs coached the Catamounts through the 2007 season. His tenure included victories over nationally ranked Furman and Eastern Kentucky, as well as a 2004 win over rival Appalachian State.
He continued coaching while undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer during the 2005 season.
Briggs later coached at Smoky Mountain High School before becoming head coach at Cherokee in 2014. He led the school to a 14-1 record and its first state championship in 2017 while receiving treatment for prostate cancer.
He was named All-Western North Carolina Coach of the Year and later became an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Briggs retired from coaching in 2019 and later returned to Western Carolina as a part-time instructor.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa; his daughter, Alex Briggs-Allison; his grandson; his brother, Randy; and other relatives. He was preceded in death by his son, Cody Kent Briggs.
