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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Chilton County High School named its next head man of its football program, recently hiring Eddie Wall to lead the Tigers into the 2024 season and beyond. Wall, who spent the last six seasons as the defensive coordinator at Leeds High School, will be stepping into his first head coaching gig of his career.

Wall spent time at Clay-Chalkville High School as its defensive line coach prior to Leeds, and was familiar with the CCHS program and area when looking for his next step in his coaching career. He applied to other schools closer to his home in Oak Mountain, but when he was introduced to the CCHS head coach opening, it seemed to fit right into what he was looking for.

“It is something that everybody who gets into coaching probably says they want to do, and I never really thought I would get there,” Wall said. “I got in contact with (CCHS), and everything about it just fit what they were looking for. Both visions seemed to align, so it seemed like a natural fit.”

Wall worked quickly after being hired and brought on Scott Clements as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator, bringing him on staff from his prior post at Tuscaloosa County High School as its offensive coordinator. The two had mutual connections during Wall’s time at Clay-Chalkville, and Clements’ time at Auburn High School before Tuscaloosa County puts deep state playoff football experience on his resume.

Clements said he believes the best offense for a team is molding it to put the players in the best position to be successful based on their skillset, and he wants to develop a core group of plays that players can run with confidence and be successful at.

“It comes down to ‘Okay, our kids can do this really well,’ and it is my job to put them in a spot where they can do those things well,” Clements said. “If I am doing my job right, it is adapting so those kids do not have to.”

The biggest things the CCHS administration and Gridiron Club were looking for in its hire for head coach was someone that could bring in a staff that would love the players in the program, and invest their time outside of winning. Wall said many of the questions during the interview process were more concerned about the connection the coach would make to the kids, and ways the coach would enhance that relationship after the hire.

The biggest thing the first-year head coach has picked up since starting his own high school football playing career in 2002 is for coaches to love the kids first, and everything that is done within a high school football program needs to be done for the kids’ best interest.

Within their first few weeks on campus, Wall and Clements have created a fifth quarter program, a character education program for the team, that prepares the players for life after high school graduation.

“Some things you can do organizational wise that will put you in a position to win on Friday nights, and we have preached to the kids all this week that we will put them in that position to win,” Wall said. “Football wise, we are going to do what we have to do to win. Hopefully, we are bringing in a lot of great coaches, and the ones we are searching for have great reputations. That is where we have to sometimes take a step back from our ego and say ‘What I have done the last five years is not going to work here, and what can we do, that I know how to teach, to put these kids in a position to compete to win.’ Winning is hard, but it all goes back to investing in these kids first.”

Wall has recently come to terms to bring in former Maplesville High School football standout Nick Andrews to serve as the program’s defensive coordinator. An Alabama State University alumnus, Wall is excited to have someone like Andrews on staff who is from the same area as the players, and hopes he will help connect with them on a more personal and local level.

“We want Chilton County High School to be the place to be, and we are going to invest in these kids more than we ever have, hold them to a standard that very few schools in the state are held to, and we are going to do the things necessary to win on Friday nights — hard work, time in the summer,” Wall said. “(We want) anyone who wants to be a part of the program in any way to reach out, and anything we can do to be the most successful version of ourselves, and our community, the football program is here to do that. We want our kids to be seen in public as leaders of the school and the community.”