Hartselle’s senior football players decided to surprise their head coach on his 50th birthday which was Sept., 8. | Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Head Coach Bob Godsey looks back on his 27 years of coaching

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

When the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard on Fri. Sept., 9 for the Hartselle Tiger’s 13-0 win over the Florence Falcons, it was a sweet moment for Hartselle’s Head Coach Bob Godsey. Just a day prior, the 14 year Hartselle coach had turned 50 years old and as his daughters surrounded him yelling “birthday win, birthday win”, Godsey couldn’t help but crack a smile and even a celebratory dance to the delight of his players and slight embarrassment of his daughters. Hartselle was now 4-0, but a winning tradition is something that Godsey is used to.

Growing up, football was something that came right along with being in the Godsey family. “I grew up the son of a coach. I was used to playing in the stadium, cutting the grass, being in the field house and all that stuff” Godsey said, “football was something that was just important to our family.” Godsey’s love of football catapulted him through high school and into college where he landed at Troy. “I probably took less scholarship money to go to Troy, but it was one of those things in which I knew it was where I belonged” Godsey said, “the things I learned there helped me later in life.”

As Godsey exited college and prepared for the real world, he knew there was only one thing he wanted to do. “My first semester in college I spent going after a business degree but I knew that wasn’t what I wanted” Godsey said, “I felt that coaching was my calling.” His first coaching gig would land him at Decatur High School under, then, Head Coach Steve Rivers, father of NFL quarterback Phillip Rivers. “I was very fortunate to be able to land a job like that just out of college” He said, “I was also fortunate to be around coaches and people at Decatur that wanted to help me succeed.” Godsey spent eight years at Decatur soaking up all the knowledge he could under Rivers. “You can see his mark on the program I had at Brooks and on the program here at Hartselle” Godsey said, “He did it the right way and he taught me not just about X’s and O’s but about how to handle relationships with people and how to manage being a football coach and also being there for your family.”

From Decatur, he went on to Brooks as the Head Coach in 1998. Godsey turned the Brooks program that went 0-10 in 1997 into a team that went 42-15 in the five years he was there including a quarterfinal appearance in 2000. His success at Brooks landed him the job at Hartselle in 2003. Godsey helped turn Hartselle into the success it is today, but it wasn’t without bumps along the way. Hartselle fell in the quarterfinals of the playoffs three times from 2006-2009. Hartselle lost to Athens in 2006 and Russellville in 2008, both being teams Hartselle had beaten earlier in the regular season while Athens went on to win the state championship in 2006. The Tigers lost to McAdory in 2009. Hartselle would finally get past the quarterfinals in 2010, by defeating Russellville but would fall a week later to Briarwood Christian in overtime. Despite all this, he felt it would all work out. “All those near misses helped shape our program” Godsey said, “I looked at it as you can dwell on it or you can work to get better and keep firing.” By choosing to do the latter, Hartselle finally reached the mountaintop.

In 2011, Hartselle came in with many unknowns and many critics felt it would be a rebuilding year. However, Hartselle did the exact opposite and went on to run the table to a 15-0 season and the school’s first ever-state championship. “Winning that was special not just for the players on the team but for the players who had helped us get there on the teams before and to the players on the teams long before I got here” Godsey said, “It means a lot to have alumni come up to you and tell you how much that meant for them.”

Since that season, Hartselle has faced many struggles but continues to defy the odds. Hartselle suffered huge losses going into 2013 because of graduation and has been rebuilding their depth ever since and in 2014 the Tigers moved into the class 6A region 8, which is considered to be the toughest region in Alabama from top to bottom. Each year since 2013, Hartselle has been written off in preseason, and each year they have defied those odds. “I would put what we’ve accomplished these past three years against anything in my career” Godsey said, “these kids could have chose to listen to the critics but they chose to work instead.” Godsey would continue. “Out of all the teams in region eight, only us and Muscle Shoals have reached the playoffs each year” Godsey said, “We definitely haven’t been the most talented team but we’ve topped the list in hard work, effort and discipline.”

As he looks back, there are plenty of games Godsey will remember for long after he retires. “Beating Russellville in 2008 for the first time in 27 years was pretty special” Godsey said, “All the games in the playoffs in 2011 and obviously any game against Cullman is pretty special as well.”

Godsey doesn’t plan to leave Hartselle anytime soon, but he couldn’t help but think about the way he will be remembered when he does leave. “It’s a hard question to answer” Godsey said, “I hope at the end of the day that all the players I’ve coached know that I loved them and I cared for them and that people know that I worked as hard as I could work. If they think I gave them everything I had then I’ll be ok.”