By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
Billy Coleman’s decison to retire as the head football coach at Brewer High School certainly couldn’t have been an easy one. The love that he developed in the east Morgan County area was just too hard to ignore.
But it was that sense of loyalty to the Brewer community that brought the longtime head football coach to his decision to leave the program after his fifth year on the Patriots’ sidelines.
Billy Coleman put the school first when it came time to look to the future.
Coleman wasn’t a full-time employee at Brewer. He taught one class and worked with the football team during seventh period. But with proration looming, budget cuts would certainly hit the Patriots hard.
At stake would be the Patriots’ feeder program that currently has about 160 players competing at six different schools - Cotaco, Eva, Lacey’s Spring, Ryan, Sparkman and Union Hill. And Coleman knows that the future of Brewer’s football team lies with those six schools.
Coleman didn’t fully embrace the feeder schools when he came to Brewer. A couple of years later, though, he started to see the situation differently: to win at Brewer, you’ve got to establish solid programs at the feeder schools.
Coleman’s future as Brewer coach was probably limited. The Cullman County resident planned to run for Superintendent of Education in Cullman County in 2010.
Still, he insists his decision was not due to his political aspirations.
Coleman came to Brewer when the school’s football position wasn’t exactly an attractive opportunity. The Patriots had won just once in the three seasons before Coleman’s hiring.
Those days are changing, though. But for Coleman, he’ll look at other challenges away from coaching.
Sports editor Todd Thompson can be reached at 773-6566 or at todd.thompson@hartselleenquirer.com