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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
2024 Class 5A Coaching Changes
2024 Head Football Coaching Changes |
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Region 1 Faith Academy - Jack French accepted the head coaching position at Faith Academy in 2018 and quickly turned around the fortunes of the football program. His six teams went 55-20 and qualified for the playoffs at the end of each season. His 2020 and 2022 squads reached the semifinals. Three of his teams won at least ten games. French retired following the 2023 football season with a record of 314-140-2 in 40 years as a head football coach in Mississippi and Alabama. His playoff record was 32-21. 2024 Season - Erik Speakman spent the last six seasons as the head football coach at Opelika with a record of 45-25 and 9-4 in the playoffs. Opelika made the jump up to 7A in 2022 and struggled against some of the best teams in the state with Auburn, Central PC, Dothan High and Enterprise in the same region. He follows in the footsteps of Coach Jack French at Faith Academy. Vigor - Marcus Cook was notified in June that his services were no longer need at Vigor as they decided to go in a different direction. 2024 Season - John McKenzie returns to Vigor where he spent two season in 2020 and 2021. His last team finished 14-1 and took home the Blue Map for 4A. After leaving Vigor he spent one season and Murphy and last year at Paul Bryant. Region 2 Carroll - Patrick Plott resigned from his head coaching position at Carroll after leading the program for the past four seasons at the helm. His teams finished a combined 16-27 but did qualify for the playoffs each season before losing in the first round. Coach Plott has an overall record of 102-54 in thirteen seasons as a head coach. His 2013 squad at Pickens County went a perfect 15-0 and won the Class 1A state championship. He has also had stops at Aliceville, Bullock County and Greenville. His teams have won five region championships. 2024 Season - Matt Mellown was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at four different schools, the last four at Andalusia High School. Mellown was a standout football player at Andalusia High School in 2004-06 under Tom Causey and Brian Seymore, graduating in 2007. He attended Troy University before transferring to Alabama and completing his degree. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Mary Montgomery, Demopolis and Prattville before returning to Andalusia in 2020. Region 3 Holtville - Jason Franklin leaves Holtville after seven seasons with a 37-39 record. He led the Bulldogs to a playoff spot in each of his last six years but they failed to win a playoff game in those attempts at the post season. Over the course of his 16 years as a head football coach he has compiled a record of 71-98 with nine trips to the playoffs at Horseshoe Bend and Holtville. 2024 Season - Cory Lee played football and graduated from Prattville High School. He also played college ball at Southern Illinois before returning to Prattville in 2015 as the linebacker coach. The next season he took a job as the defensive coordinator at Baldwin County for four seasons. He spent one season in the same position at Pinson Valley before returning home. This will be his first head coaching job. Jemison - John Therrell after three seasons in Jemison John Therrell will not return for the 2024 football season. During his tenure with the Panthers his teams finished just 4-26 and failed to make the playoffs. Jemison has struggled to win football games since moving up to 5A in 2014. In the past ten seasons they have won only 25 games and did not post a winning record while losing the only two playoff games they appeared in during that time. The new hire will be the seventh head football coach since the 2020 season for the Panthers. 2024 Season - Rishard Davis graduated from Maplesville High School and attended the University of Arizona before returning to Alabama at Huntingdon College where he excelled on the football field. Following graduation he went back to Arizona and landed his first head coaching job in 2014 and won a state championship in 2020. In 2021 he was an assistant at Chilton County and at Maplesville in 2022. Montevallo - Blake Boren resigned his position at Montevallo in March after four seasons where his teams produced a 26-17 record with a couple of playoff appearances during his time at the helm of the Bulldogs. He is one of only six coaches to win a playoff game in the history of the program. Montevallo defeated St. James in overtime in the first round of the 2020 Class 4A playoffs. 2024 Season - Garrett Langer was appointed as the interim head coach in addition to his roles as head coach of the boys soccer and wrestling programs while the school conducts a coaching search. He was the defensive coordinator last year for the Bulldogs. Region 7 East Limestone - Clint Woodfin leaves East Limestone after just two seasons to accept an administrative position at Bob Jones High. 2024 Season - Will Johnson Russellville - John Ritter moves on to Decatur after spending the last six seasons as the head football coach at Russellville. Each of his teams reached the playoffs and had a combined record of 52-19. In eleven seasons as a head coach his teams have an overall record of 85-42 and all but one qualified for the playoffs. His previous head coaching jobs were at Red Bay for two seasons and West Morgan for another three before landing at Russellville. 2024 Season - Dustin Goodwin spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Thompson. Coach Goodwin was the head football coach at Chelsea for four seasons between 2018-2021 with a record of 15-27. He was also at Plainview for three seasons with a record of 21-12. Goodwin also served as an assistant under his father at Russellville. Region 8 Arab - Lee Ozmint leaves Arab after five successful seasons with a record of 38-18. He was dismissed from the school this spring. 2024 Season - Kyle Routon was promoted to the heads coaching position at Arab following the dismissal of Coach Ozmint. He has been very successful as the wrestling coach winning many awards ands a state championship. Routon, a Southside native and Jacksonville State University graduate, began his coaching career at Southside Gadsden. He served as head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at Southside. He also was head softball coach for one season. Routon next went to Oxford where he spent two seasons as the head wrestling coach and assistant football coach. West Point - Don Farley ended his tenure at Tanner after eleven seasons at the helm of the Warriors football program. His teams finished a combined 54-62 with six playoff appearances. They failed to win any of the playoff games. He leaves as the winningest coach ever at the school that has not found great success since first playing football back in 1964. 2024 Season - Kevin McCravy was the QB Coach and Offensive Coordinator for the 2023 season at Russellville. Previously he was at Decatur High School where he spent twelve years, the last five as the Offensive Coordinator for the Red Raiders. This will be his first job as a head football coach. Scottsboro - Cris Bell resigned in early January after just three seasons at Scottsboro. His teams finished a combined 18-15 with two trips to the playoffs. His twelve seasons as a head coach with nine years at Oak Mountain have produced a 65-64 overall record. 2024 Season - Tyler Vann moves to Scottsboro for the 2024 football season. Vann was an assistant coach at Scottsboro during the 2018 season and returns as the head coach this year. He is a 2013 graduate of North Sand Mountain High School. He was most recently the head football coach at Sylvania where he led his teams to a 28-10 record in just three seasons with the program. He was also the head coach at Woodville in 2020. Priceville - Chris Foster leaves Priceville after five seasons with an impressive 40-18 record. He took the team to four playoff appearances winning a playoff game each time. Coach Foster turned around a struggling football program winning eight games his first season in Priceville. His 40 victories are the most by a head coach at Priceville and his four playoff wins are the only ones in school history. 2024 Season - Seth Parker was the offensive coordinator at Bob Jones the past three seasons. Parker replaces Chris Foster, who went 40-18 in five years at the school. Prior to that, he was the wide receivers coach for the Patriots and also spent one year at Athens. | |
David Parker
AHSFHS.org
dparker@ahsfhs.org
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
Ken Stabler, Bart Starr, Ozzie Newsome, John Stallworth, John Hannah and Buck Buchanan are all members of the NFL Hall of Fame and played high school football in Alabama.
Ken Stabler, Bart Starr, Ozzie Newsome, John Stallworth, John Hannah and Buck Buchanan are all members of the NFL Hall of Fame and played high school football in Alabama.
