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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Maplesville High School football coaches Brad Abbott and Justin Little each won coaching awards for the 2024 season at the 20th annual Alabama Football Coaches Association Banquet on Jan. 25. Abbott was named the Class 1A Coach of the Year and Little the Class 1A Assistant Coach of the Year by the ALFCA after leading the Red Devils back to the state championship game and extending historic streaks in 2024.

“It was exciting to hear I won the award, but it is not anything I have done — just a combination of great players, great assistant coaches that I had this last year and throughout the years,” Abbott said. “It is humbling for me … I do what I can and there are a lot of areas I am not very strong in, and that is why I put a lot of people around me that are stronger in those areas. It is an award I share with them, and they know I appreciate them.”

“I was extremely honored to win that award, and our whole coaching staff is really good at what we do,” Little said. “We had an unbelievable season and one of the most fun seasons I have ever coached. No one thought we would make it as far as we did, and we just kept going and winning. We did the best we could with these guys and put them in positions to win, and I feel like the whole coaching staff did a great job and I am blessed to work with these guys.”

The pair of coaches got Maplesville back to the state championship game for the first time since 2016 and finished 12-3 overall and 7-0 in Class 1A Region 4. The 2024 season was Maplesville’s 29th 10-win season in program history, which is tied for the most in Alabama high school football history with Hoover and T.R. Miller High Schools. Abbott said he shares these types of achievements and milestones with his players and they are aware of how big of a deal it is.

“It is about them continuing to fight with the hard-nosed, physical play, hustle and stuff that this school is built on, and a lot of it is selling what has been done in the past,” Abbott said. “When they see that stuff play out, they see them beat a team that had better athletes and players, but the reason they won is their discipline and hard play. They live on that here now, and last year’s team was evidence of that.”

Gritty, hard-fought wins during the 2024 season were a staple for Maplesville — the 21-20 win over region runner-up Autauga Academy to narrow playoff wins over Sweet Water High School 21-20 and Elba High School 28-21. The instilment of that grittiness goes into the players early on at Maplesville and letting players know that losing is fine, but you have to learn from the losses when they happen. It should hurt, but you have to move on and not dwell on it. It goes back to the tradition that the program, and school as a whole, is built on.

Abbott is a 1987 graduate of Maplesville and has built over three decades of dedication to the Maplesville football program as a player, assistant and now head coach. He currently has a 102-53 all-time coaching record, and 57-20 at Maplesville while compiling three 10-win seasons. He said the things he has learned from players, assistant coaches and coaches he has coached under over the years has allowed him to lead the program now. Abbott worked under both Jim and Brent Hubbert and learned a lot from them — things he continues to do that he saw helps win ballgames.

“That is the only thing I know, so that is what I continue to do and it helps me be successful,” Abbott said. “They gave me the way to do it, and I do not ever want to veer from it because it is pretty successful.”

Little is also a graduate of Maplesville from 2006 and started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant under Brent Hubbert. After a brief stint at the middle school level and one year at Jemison High School as their offensive coordinator, he returned to Maplesville in 2018. When Abbott was named head coach in 2019, he tabbed Little as his offensive coordinator — a decision that has yielded four 10-win seasons, four region titles and last year’s state championship game appearance. Abbott nominated Little for the Class 1A Assistant Coach of the Year award.

“It was even a bigger honor that we both won it,” Little said. “It meant a lot to both of us, and I think it meant a lot to our kids too.”

Little led a Red Devils’ offense that averaged 34.3 points per game and transformed from its run-first identity it had for a few seasons. He is a big believer that if an offense cannot run the football, then you cannot win games. However, when you have a quarterback like junior Pearce Yeargan last year who made large progressions and a deep wide receiver corps, it opens up the passing game to add to the running attack giving Maplesville great balance.

Little added that being able to coach at his alma mater is really special for him, as well as being the head baseball coach and athletic director for the school.