By Staff
Charles Prince, Hartselle Enquirer
The Brewer Patriots have a new head football coach. Billy Coleman was confirmed by the Morgan County School Board of Education Thursday as the coach.
The 48-year old Coleman previously coached at Dora and West Point high schools. He coached West Point from 1983-1985 and then left to coach Dora where he spent three years from 1986-1988.
In 1989, he returned to West Point as head coach until 1994 when he retired from coaching to concentrate on his duties as principal of the Cullman County school. He compiled an 89-54 record during his 12-year coaching career.
Coleman met with his players on Friday morning and then met with the assistant coaches on Friday afternoon.
During his first day of work Monday, Coleman was organizing his office, checking equipment and cleaning up the field house. Coleman says he is excited to be back in coaching after a year and a half lay off.
"I'm excited about this opportunity to work with these kids," Coleman said. "Some of my friends who knew I might be interested in this job told the people at Brewer about me. That's how I got my interview. I can't wait to get things started."
Winning football games is not Coleman's main goal.
"I want to make a difference in these kids' lives," Coleman said. "I view this job as part of my ministry in Christ. I want to set a good example for these kids to follow and show them that someone believes in them. Winning games and making the playoffs are always your goal as a coach, but helping these kids become better people is my first goal."
Coleman will not settle on an offense or defense until spring practice is under way.
"At the high school level you need a system that can take advantage of the talent you have, " Coleman said. "I'll have to wait and see the kids on the field before I decide on what schemes we will use on both sides of the ball. I plan on being flexible as our talent dictates."
Coleman is well aware of the challenge he is taking on and the recent history of a program that has won only one time in its last 30 games.
"I know this, everyone wants to play Brewer for their spring game," Coleman joked. "But we may not play a jamboree game in the fall. We may want to keep that element of surprise for our opponents. What we do in the spring will be very basic and we won't show too much of what we intend to do during the season."
Coleman says the process of building a winning program at the Florette school will take time.
"We just have to take one step at time and build a winning team," Coleman said. "It's really hard to say how long it will take to have winning football here, but that's the goal."
Coleman says he will wait until the spring sports end on campus before starting his first spring training with the Patriots.
Coleman, who is a motivational speaker and author, addressed the state legislature during their prayer breakfast meeting on Wednesday. He felt it was easier to address the legislators than to talk with his new team.
"I was more nervous talking to my team on Friday," Coleman said. "I had butterflies. It's great to be part of this game again."
Coleman's resume –
1980 – 1982 | Assistant football coach at Benjamin Russell High School.
1983-1985 | Head Coach at West Point High School | 17-15 record.
1986-1988 | Head Coach at Dora High School | 26-10 record.
1989-1994 | Head Coach at West Point High School | 36-29 record.