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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
2026 Class 4A Coaching Changes
2026 Head Football Coaching Changes |
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Anniston - Rico Jackson resigned in January to accept a position as the next head football coach at Minor. Jackson led Anniston to the 2025 state championship game in Birmingham before losing to Jackson in the title game. His three seasons in Anniston produced a record of 27-11 with a playoff appearance following each season. 2026 Season - Damien Dorsey will inherit a good group of athletes at Anniston as the Bulldogs reached the Class 4A state championship game in 2025. While he was unable to turn around the football program at Talladega his task at Anniston may prove to be a little easier. Beauregard - Shenan Motley resigned his head coaching position at Beauregard in April and almost immediately accepted the same position at Horseshoe Bend. Motley spent just one season at Beauregard and his team finished with a 3-8 record. 2026 Season - Vacant Carroll - Matt Mellown leaves Carroll and Ozark after only two seasons with a 3-17 record. The Eagles last winning season was in 2017 when they finished 11-1 but since then things have not gone well for the program. 2026 Season - Steve McLendon played high school football at Carroll High School and starred at Troy before embarking on a 12-year NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay and the Jets. He played in the NFL from 2009 to 2021, winning a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2020 season. The 2026 season will be his first venture into the high school coaching ranks. Carver Birmingham - Rod Carson leaves Carver after two stints and a total of ten seasons leading the Rams football program. His last team may have been the best Carver squad finishing with a 6-3 record. Carver qualified for the playoffs the last two consecutive seasons for the first time since 2003. Coach Carson had the program headed in the right direction and will leave it to someone else to continue to build on that recent success. 2026 Season - Keon Handley will take over the football program at Carver as the 2026 season approaches. He has been around the Birmingham area and served as the head coach at Fairfield and Fultondale most recently. Center Point - DreMail King spent just one season at Center Point which produced a 2-7 record before departing following the 2025 football season. 2026 Season - Grady Griffin spent the last two seasons serving as offensive coordinator at Pinson Valley High School, where the Indians averaged 30.3 points per game. He previously served as head coach at Aliceville from 2021 to 2024. Griffin's experience also includes serving as head coach at Francis Marion High School for two seasons. Cherokee County - Jacob Kelley resigned his head coaching position at Cherokee County in mid November. He leaves as the third winningest coach in school history with 65 victories under his belt. His teams reached the 4A state championship game three consecutive seasons but failed to bring a Blue Map back home to Centre. The Warriors have had great luck in retaining head football coaches since 1966 as they have had only six during that timeframe. Look for some of the bigger names to be on a long list of candidates for this job. 2026 Season - Bayley Blanchard will move to Cherokee County as the head football coach at the young age of 27. He played for Steve Smith at Piedmont winning a state championship in 2015. He went on to play at West Alabama earning all conference honors on the field. Blanchard came to Glencoe as an assistant coach in 2022 and served as the defensive coordinator in 2024 before taking over as the head coach for one season last year. Dale County - Evan Ballard leaves Dale County after only three seasons and took the head coaching job at Providence Christian. His three seasons produced an 18-13 record with a couple of first round playoff losses. 2026 Season - Will Garner joins the Warriors after a brief stint with the Dothan High School Wolves, where he served as one of the team's assistant defensive coaches. Garner also served as the Daleville Warhawks head coach and, prior to that, as Charles Henderson's defensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coach. Demopolis - Ricky Woods leaves Demopolis after a single season that saw the Tigers finish 6-5. The six wins were the fewest for the Tigers since they finished with the same record back in 2011. Now Demopolis will be in search of a new leader for the fourth time in the last five seasons. The list of possible candidates should be long as the Tigers have always been winners on the football field. Thirty seasons in a row they have qualified for the playoffs and the program has amassed 698 victories on the gridiron the past 106 years. 2026 Season - Dustin Goodwin returns to Demopolis where he starred on the football field for the Tigers. His head coaching career has taken him from Plainview to Chelsea and most recently to Russellville the last two seasons. His overall record stands at 50-48. Dora - Chavis Williams stepped down as the head football coach at Dora after five seasons leading the program. His team finished a combined 30-25 making the playoffs four of those seasons. 2026 Season - Greg Patterson. resigned at Hueytown and most thought he may retire from coaching completely. But to our surprise he accepted the head coaching job at Dora just a few weeks later. His success leading the Golden Gophers was nothing short of amazing. In seven seasons they won 61 games including a 13-2 season in 2021 which culminated with a trip to the Super 7. While they came up short in that game the Golden Gophers did set a state record for points scored in a season with 784. Fairfield - Shepherd Skanes had been the head coach at Fairfield since 2022, compiling a record of 19-26 through four seasons. He passed away in early February. 2026 Season - Rex Sharpe was a standout linebacker at Fairfield High School back in his playing days and will now return to the school as head coach. He was considered one of the better prospects his senior season. Sharpe spent several seasons as defensive coordinator at Parker, where he was an important part of the team's state championship win in 2024. He also served as an assistant coach at Pinson Valley and Jackson-Olin previously. Fairview - George Redding Jr. retired from the sidelines following the 2025 football season at Fairview. His 19 year career with the Aggies produced a record of 139-71 and thirteen playoff appearances. Redding's teams won three region championships including the last two seasons leading the program. 2026 Season - Brian Simmons spent the last 19 years calling the defense for the Aggies and will now have the opportunity to step into the head coaching role in 2026. Simmons played football at West End High School. Greenville - Garrick Pimienta leaves Greenville after only three seasons with a 10-21 record. The Tigers were once a proud and consistent winning football program but have not been able to find a coach to lead them back to prominence on the field. Over the past 25 years the Tigers have cycled through a dozen head coaches with only a single one staying around for more than four seasons. A little stability would go a long way to rebuilding this program it seems. 2026 Season - Gary Johnston is a native of Gulf Shores and graduated from West Alabama in 2013. He served as the offensive coordinator at Foley the past four seasons before landing in Greenville as the next head football coach. Johnston also served as an assistant coach at Luverne, Citronelle and was the baseball coach at Elberta previously. Guntersville - Lance Reese retired after sixteen seasons leading the Guntersville Wildcats football program. He leaves with 137 wins and five region championships. All but one of his teams qualified for the playoffs. 2026 Season - Will Lang joins Guntersville from Hartselle High School, where he served as offensive coordinator, play caller, and associate head coach. Headland - Ethan Holland spent the 2025 season as the head coach at Headland where his only team finished with a 4-5 record. The Rams will be in search of of a new head coach for the eighth time in the past sixteen years. Holland moved on to Rehobeth as their head coach. 2026 Season - Ashley Trammell served as an assistant coach at Headland the past few seasons and will now get his first shot as the head football coach at the school. He was the head coach of the junior varsity squad and also served as the head baseball coach at Headland and previously at Abbeville. Holt - Brian Newton leaves Holt High School after only three seasons but his squad showed promise even with talk of disbanding the football program swirled around them. It was the best two year showing for the Ironmen since 2005. Now Holt will be on the clock in search of a coach willing to revive the program and keep it intact for the future. 2026 Season - Jordan Smith, a Millport native and a 2012 graduate of South Lamar High School, most recently served as Holt's defensive coordinator. Previously Smith spent four seasons at American Christian, where he served as an assistant coach from 2020 through 2023. Smith began his coaching career at Central High School in Tuscaloosa, where he coached defensive backs from 2017 to 2019. He played college football at Huntingdon. LeFlore - Michael Perry coached the LeFlore Rattlers the first nine games of the 2025 football season before interim head coach Markus Douglas stepped up to fill the void for the last game of the season. The Rattlers finished the 2025 season with a 3-7 record and will be headed in a different direction as next season approaches. The next hire will be the tenth different head coach to roam the sidelines at LeFlore this century. They last qualified for the playoffs in 2013 and last won a playoff game back in 2009. 2026 Season - Jonathan Mitchell is a 2006 graduate of LeFlore High School and has been the defensive coordinator at Williamson since 2019. He also coached at Norcross, Georgia and Amite County, Mississippi. Mitchell played football at Grambling State from 2007-2011. Marbury - Houston Powell leaves Marbury after three seasons as the head football coach. His record was a disappointing 5-26 with one playoff appearance. 2026 Season - Jason Wallace makes his return to Marbury where he was the had coach for two seasons in 2019-2020. Wallace most recently was the head coach at Prattville for four seasons. His overall record in eleven seasons as a head coach stands at an even 54-54. Moody - Jake Ganus resigned his position as head football coach at Moody shortly after leading the Blue Devils to their first ever state championship in December. In four short years he turned the dormant program into a championship program winning at least ten games all four seasons at the helm. The four consecutive ten win seasons came after the school had never even won ten games in any season since first fielding a varsity football team in 1978. 2026 Season - Kyle Tatum has been named the head coach of the Moody Blue Devils. They are the defending state champions and will be striving to get back to the same spot in 2026 under a different head coach after Jake Ganus bolted to Pell City. Following a standout high school career at Prattville, Tatum played offensive tackle at the University of Alabama in 2004. He served as an assistant coach at Texas State between 2012-2015 before moving to UAB in 2016. Most recently he was as assistant coach at Briarwood. Priceville - Seth Parker resigned as the head coach at Priceville in January to accept the same position at Bob Jones. Parker spent two seasons at Priceville and transformed the program from 2-8 in his first season to a second-round playoff appearance last season. 2026 Season - Austin Burke spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Priceville. Prior to that, he spent six years as an assistant at James Clemens as well as making stops at Hazel Green and Munford. Sardis - B.J. Brooks resigned as the head coach at Sardis in January and was almost immediately named the next head coach at Glencoe. Brooks spent three seasons as the head coach and athletic director at Sardis. During his three seasons with the Lions, Brooks finished with a 10-20 record. 2026 Season - Wes Tidwell arrives at Sardis from Ragland where his teams reached the playoffs all five seasons with the Purple Devils, going 31-25 during his time there. He has been the head coach at Winston County between 2012 and 2015 with a record of 21-22. He was also the offensive coordinator at Alma Bryant and spent a season at Huntsville after leaving Winston County. Selma - Marcus Gardner leaves Selma after just one season that saw his Saints finish with a 3-7 record. 2026 Season - Charles Moody Jr. moves just a little down the road and shortly after resigning his position at Southside will be the next head football coach at Selma. His Panthers finished 13-1 last year before losing in the semi-finals to Bayside Academy. His overall record in 15 seasons stands at 95-73. Straughn - Garrett Windham leaves Straughn after two seasons with a record of 10-11 with one playoff appearance. He has accepted a job as an assistant coach at Foley. 2026 Season - Clint Humphrey served as the offensive coordinator for the Tigers last season and has been promoted to the head coaching job at Straughn. Humphrey has also been an assistant coach at St. Luke's, Murphy, Demopolis, Stanhope Elmore and Excel. Tallassee - Lawrence ONeal spent the last two seasons leading the Tallassee Tigers onto the football field. He has decided to move on and has taken the same position at Park Crossing near Montgomery. 2026 Season - Eric Folmar was announced as the next head football coach at Tallassee in April. Folmar arrives from Greenville where he was an assistant coach last year. He has previously been the head coach at Edgewood Academy and Fort Dale Academy in the AISA. | |
David Parker
AHSFHS.org
dparker@ahsfhs.org
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
Morris Higginbotham coached three different teams to divisional state championships in the 1950s. He won titles at Walnut Grove in 1952, West Blocton in 1955 and Enterprise in 1960.
Morris Higginbotham coached three different teams to divisional state championships in the 1950s. He won titles at Walnut Grove in 1952, West Blocton in 1955 and Enterprise in 1960.
