Story By Jason Bowen
After the most successful three-year run in Pisgah football history, the program underwent a head-coaching change this offseason.
But that did not mean the team’s expectations have changed.
“We know there’s a lot of expectations on us,” said new Pisgah head coach Adam Gilbert of the Eagles’ state-championship goal. “We’re not hiding from it.”
Gilbert and Pisgah senior players Cape Duncan, Jackson Smalley, Chad Smith and Landon Watkins discussed the upcoming high school football season last week during the annual Jackson-DeKalb Football Media Day at the Tom Bevill Center in Rainsville.
The Eagles have gone 34-7 over the past three seasons while making three Class 2A state quarterfinal appearances and two state semifinal appearances. Pisgah finished 11-2 and won the Class 2A Region 7 title last season.
Gilbert, who was the head coach at North Sand Mountain from 2010-13 and Arab from 2014-17 before serving as offensive coordinator at Scottsboro from 2018-19, had served as Pisgah’s offensive coordinator the past five seasons.
When Luke Pruitt was in the process of deciding whether to leave Pisgah for the head-coaching position at Boaz High School, Gilbert informed Pisgah principal Jamie Darwin he wanted the head-coaching job if Pruitt left Minutes after Pruitt’s hiring at Boaz was official, Darwin announced Gilbert’s promotion to head coach, making him the third ever PHS graduate to serve in the role.
“If Pruitt decided to take it as a no-brainer for me,” said Gilbert, a 2001 Pisgah graduate who was an all-state tight end on the Eagles’ 2000 Class 2A state runner-up team. “I wasn’t going to let anybody else come in there and try to change up what we’ve been doing. Coach Pruitt did a great job of building the program. We won a lot of football games…it’s not broke, so don’t fix it.”
Smith, a three-year starting left guard, said the Eagles “got right back into” their offseason work right after the coaching change, adding “I feel good about everything we’ve done” since the coaching change occured.
Watkins, an all-state receiver with offers from Army and West Alabama, said “not much is going to change — keeping the same standard,” while Smalley said the Eagles will continue to “try to be the most physical team” in every game.
Pisgah is returning seven starters on each side of the football, but the Eagles will have to make up for the lost offensive production of all-state running back Legion McCrary and all-state athlete Luke Gilbert, who played quarterback last season and signed with Jacksonville State to play tight end.
Cutter Mays is stepping in Pisgah’s starting quarterback role and Gilbert believes the sophomore is ready to be the point-man for a unit with plenty of returning skill position players.
“Cutter won the job,” Gilbert said, “and more importantly, he won his team. They saw that he’s the quarterback.”
Other additions to the Pisgah football team included former Pisgah head coaches Doug Haynes and Freddie Tidmore joining the coaching staff. Haynes, a long-time offensive coordinator at North Jackson and Pisgah, will again serve as offensive coordinator. Tidmore, a Pisgah alum who coached the Eagles from 1987-94 and was Scottsboro’s head coach from 2005-09, is back coaching in Alabama after stints at out-of-state schools South Pittsburg (Tennessee) and Chattooga (Georgia). They most recently were the golf coaches at Northeast Alabama Community College before deciding to return to football.
“It’s been fun to see them (and) their renewed energy (for the sport),” Gilbert said.
And while the Eagles have experienced a great deal of success of late, Gilbert said they aren’t content with previous seasons’ success.
“Our (mindset) is never satisfied,” he said. “We’re not satisfied. Has it been great, yes. We’ve won a lot of games and we’re thankful for that, but we’re not satisfied.”
Added Smith, “I feel like we can take that next step. We’re still getting better, we’re still learning, but most importantly we’re maturing.”
Duncan said the Eagles’ end-goal is to win a state title, noting the process of getting to that point must be the main focus.
“I think we’ve got what it takes,” he said, “(but) we’re just going to take it week by week and do what we do, not look at the big picture and see where that takes us.”
