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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
The Best Family Coaches
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(Updated 12/20/2024) It seems coaching runs in some families around the state. There are more than just a few father and son coaches that have graced the sidelines over the years. Some have put up impressive win totals. Mike Battles Sr. headed the football program at B.B. Comer while his son Mike Jr. recently took the job at Southern Academy so he may add to that total in the next few years. The two have combined for 411 wins. The Andersons: Dovey, Buddy and Clint Anderson top our list with 553 wins between them. Father, Dovey Anderson began his head coaching career at Thomasville in the fall of 1931. Over the next thirty-one seasons his teams would only finish with a losing record once. Three of his teams would not lose a game during the season and only one game five other times. His overall record was 178-82-25 as coach of the Tigers. |  Morris Higginbotham |
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Buddy Anderson decided during high school that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a coach. He began his career as an assistant at Vestavia Hills in 1972 and would become the head coach of the Rebels in 1978. He retired following the 2020 football season as the head coach at Vestavia Hills and holds the all time record for coaching wins in the state with a record of 346-160. Clint Anderson, the grandson of Dovey and the nephew of Buddy, took over at Thomasville in 2022 and will continue the Anderson legacy of coaches in Alabama. The Higginbothams: Morris Higginbotham is recognized as one of the greatest coaches of his era. His head coaching career began in 1952 with Walnut Grove and would span a total of thirty-one years and eight high schools before he finally retired following the 1982 season at Hueytown. He would remain at Walnut Grove for only one season which included being named as state champions by the Birmingham News. In 1953 he took the head position at West Blocton where in five years his teams were named state champions three times by the Birmingham News and Post-Herald. In 1960 his Enterprise Wildcats team won another title as awarded by the Birmingham News and the ASWA. His overall record was 159-79-10. As a father and son combination their record was 460-200-14. Robert Higginbotham won a state championships at Mountain Brook in 1975 where he was the head coach between 1973 and 1975. In 1977 he took the head coaching job at Shades Valley where he served for the next twenty-two seasons. His teams there produced eleven region championships and qualified for the playoffs fourteen times. Following the 1998 season Coach Higginbotham would take over the reins at Tuscaloosa County where his success continued. In ten seasons the Wildcats made the playoffs each season and won another seven region titles. For forty-seven seasons a Coach Higginbotham roamed the sidelines of Alabama high school football. Father and son would finish their careers with a combined record of 460-200-14. One family actually has three generations of head coaches. Chris Elmore became the head coach at Chelsea in the fall of 2013 before moving to Fort Payne in 2018. He is a third generation coach following his father and grandfather on the sideline. His father, Jerry, and his grandfather, Ferman, were coaches that roamed the sidelines for many years. Ferman won 99 games while Jerry won 122 during their careers. When it comes to coaching brothers it is difficult to have a discussion without talking about the Atkins. Brothers Nolan, Roland and Sid won a combined 416 games during their high school football coaching careers. There are other coaching families we are missing simply because we do not know of them. If you have knowledge of others please email me at dparker@ahsfhs.org. |
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David Parker
AHSFHS.org
dparker@ahsfhs.org
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden was a star quarterback at Woodlawn high school in Birmingham.
Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden was a star quarterback at Woodlawn high school in Birmingham.
