Over the next three seasons his teams went 26-4-1, culminating in a 12-0 State Championship season in 1967. It was the first year of the state playoffs and his team brought home the trophy. In 1968 he coached for one season at Greenville High School with a 4-5-1 record. Atkins came to Sheffield High School in 1970 and led the Bulldogs to a 37-17-1 mark as the head football coach. They captured the Tennessee Valley Conference title twice during his tenure at Sheffield. Atkins served as the head coach at Austin in 1975 where his squad went 2-8. He moved to the AISA for a couple of seasons at Meadowview Christian and South Choctaw Academy before finishing up his career at Cherokee high school (1980-82), His overall record in fourteen seasons is 91-61-5 in Alabama as a high school football coach. The record for his one season in Florida in unavailable. Roland is the brother of long-time Sweet Water head coach Nolan Atkins who won 269 games as a coach. In 1983, Atkins moved to Big Springs, Texas. He served as a schoolteacher and a coach, and was the vice principal at Big Spring High School. Roland Atkins, 64, died Thursday, May 14, 1998, in Big Springs, Texas. |