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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
2013 Class 6A Coaching Changes
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Class 6A New Hires: 18 Best Hire: Matt Scott, Gadsden City Hardest to replace: John Grass, Oxford Best Job: Spain Park Toughest Job: Carver-Birmingham - the lack of money and support has weighed upon the Birmingham schools for many years. 3-57 in the past 6 years. Region 1 Alma Bryant - 56 year old Bruce Breland replaces Eddie Stephenson. Breland was at Woodlawn the past four seasons. He led the Colonels to a playoffs spot in 2011. His record was 18-22 in four years. He has been the head coach at five different school around the state and has an overall record of 81-74. Stephenson took an assistant job at Foley. Mary Montgomery - Al Jones, a longtime coach in Mississippi has replaced Brad Lowell. Jones was the offensive line coach at MGM last year. He went 92-35 in Mississippi at George County High School in 10 years as the head coach. Jones has 28 years of coaching experience and retired from the Mississippi public school system. Theodore - Eric Collier, 44, takes over the Bobcat program. He was a head coach at Alma Bryant from 2004-13. His teams went 10-30 and failed to make the playoffs any season. Collier served as the defensive coordinator at Theodore the past four seasons. He is a graduate of Alba High School and the University of South Alabama. Collier replaces Bill Meredith who remains as the Athletic Director. Region 3 Jeff Davis - Lee Carter has the task of turning around an 0-10 team from 2012. Carter is the seventh head coach in school history. He served as the offensive coordinator at Carver-Montgomery last year and was an assistant at Carver for five seasons. He came to Carver with Coach Al Pogue from St. Jude where he was the offensive coordinator. He graduated from Alabama State University. Carter replaces Vincent Wiggins. Sidney Lanier - Clayton Harris Jr. has been an assistant at Prattville and Northview High Schools. Most recently he was at Northview as an assistant football and junior varsity basketball coach. He played wide receiver for and graduated from Alabama State University in 2005. Harris replaces Angelo Wheeler who resigned. Wheeler was 5-25 in three seasons at Lanier. Region 4 Chelsea - Chris Elmore takes over the program at Chelsea. He spent the last eight seasons at Hueytown, most recently as the offensive coordinator. He played for his father at Fort Payne and graduated from Mississippi State in 1999. He earned a degree in business administration. His grandfather Ferman Elmore is in the AHSAA Hall of Fame. Elmore replaces Wade Waldrop on a team that went 4-6 last year and moved to James Clemens High School. Spain Park - Shawn Raney was the defensive coordinator at Hoover the past three seasons. He was at Oak Mountain for one season, serving as the defensive coordinator prior to moving to Hoover in 2010. Raney has also been an assistant coach at Iowa State, UAB and Butler Community College. Chip Lindsey resigned to take an off-field and support role at Auburn. Spain Park was 10-3 last year. Region 5 Bessemer City - Martez Edwards takes over at Bessemer City. He arrives from Jackson, TN where he served as the head football coach at Central Merry High School. He led the team to the playoffs last year for the first time in eight years. Edwards teams were 7-14 in two seasons with him at the helm. Prior to his time in Tennessee, Edwards was an assistant at Howard University in Washington DC and Jackson State. He takes over from Dennis Alexander who led the Purple Tigers to a 4-5 record last year. Hueytown - Mark Stephens, 36, takes over the football program at Hueytown. He is familiar with the Golden Gophers as he served as the defensive coordinator the past three seasons. He is a native of Cullman and earned his undergraduate degree from Athens State and his Master's degree from Alabama. He has also been the defensive coordinator at Spain Park. Stephens replaces Matt Scott who jumped at the chance to go to Gadsden City. Jackson-Olin - Tim Vakakes, 32, will try to take a winless team and turn them into winner quickly. Vakakes was at Fairfield the past eleven seasons where he worked under his father, Jim Vakakes. Jim has been a recognizable figure in the Birmingham coaching community for the past 40 years. He has served as the offensive and defensive coordinator at Fairfield. Vakakes graduated from Auburn University. He takes over from Kelvin Smith. Jackson-Olin was winless last year. Region 6 Carver Birmingham - Former Parker football coach, Andre Robinson takes over at Carver. He was the head coach at Parker from 1997-2003 with a 39-37 record. In 2004 he returned to Grambling, where he had been an All-American player in the late 1970s, to serve as an assistant for the last nine seasons. He is the sixth head coach at Carver in the last seven years. He replaces James Drake who went 0-10 in 2012. Carver won three games in the past six years. Gardendale - Matt Plunkett comes over from Texas where he was the offensive coordinator at Magnolia West High School in Magnolia, Texas. He is a native of Arab and played wide receiver at North Alabama before transferring to Alabama. He served as a student assistant at Alabama before working at Missouri Southern, Carson-Newman and Pittsburg State. This is his first head coaching job. He replaces Chris Francher who resigned earlier in the year after a 7-4 season. Woodlawn - Chris Mahand moves over to Woodlawn after serving at Talladega High School the past four seasons with a 6-34 record. He was the head football coach at Talladega County Central from 2006-08 with a 33-7 record. In 2004 Mahand was at Anniston for the 2004 season with a 1-8 record. Bruce Breland resigned to take over at Alma Bryant. Region 7 Gadsden City - Matt Scott takes over the football program at Gadsden City after serving as the head coach at Hueytown the past four seasons with a 35-13 record. He also spent time as an assistant at Cullman and Spain Park. Scott replaces Joe Billingsley who was the only coach Gadsden City ever knew in the seven years of the program. His record with the Tigers was 58-26. Each of his teams reached the playoffs and three won region titles. Billingsley's overall record in 16 seasons was 117-68. Oxford - Ryan Herring, 37, has served as the head coach at Lincoln (2012) and Shelby County (2006-11). His overall record is 46-31. His father, Robert Herring, is in the AHSAA Hall of Fame and was the Oxford coach from 1985-98. He won three State Championships with the Yellow Jackets. It is a dream job for Ryan who replaced John Grass. Grass took the offensive coordinator's position at Jacksonville State with head coach Bill Clark. Pell City - Brooks Dampeer, 29, landed his first head coaching job in the spring at Pell City. Dampeer played quarterback at North Alabama and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant. He took the job of offensive coordinator at Spain Park in 2009 and followed David Shores to Pell City. Dampeer's father was a successful football coach in Mississippi. He replaces his mentor, David Shores resigned earlier this year. Region 8 Buckhorn - David O'Connor moves into the head coaching job at Buckhorn from Giles County, TN, where he was the head coach. He went 75-17 in seven seasons with the Bobcats. His team wan a State Championship in 2009 and lost in the semi-finals last year. O'Connor spent four seasons as the head coach at Lee Huntsville from 2002-05 going 26-17 with three playoff appearances. He replaces Chris Hancock who was 6-14 in two seasons at Buckhorn before being let go at the end of last season. James Clemens - Wade Waldrop is a 1994 graduate of Hartselle High School. He arrives from Chelsea where he was the head coach the past seven years. Waldrop was at Chelsea a total of ten seasons. He went 41-34 at Chelsea and his teams qualified for the playoffs four times. He replaces Bill Stewart after only one season at the helm. |
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.
