By Tim Gayle
It’s been nine years since Jeff Foshee served as a head coach in the Central Alabama area, but the former Stanhope Elmore football coach doesn’t feel he has any extra incentive against the potential employers who refused him employment over the last decade.
“I really don’t need that kind of motivation,” he said. “I’m going to always work hard to try and win and do things the right way.”
Foshee was introduced as the new Autauga Academy head football coach on Thursday night at the Generals’ football banquet after working the past season as an assistant for headmaster Jeremy Carter.
Carter, who took over as head coach following the departure of Trey Dunbar in August, worked as the head coach in the Generals’ final year as an Alabama Independent School Association member but wanted to hire a football coach as the program begins its first season next fall in the Alabama High School Athletic Association.
“I would say we had probably 30 applicants,” Carter said. “We went through them and took the top five and we interviewed the top five. Actually, it was the top four because we had one who dropped out the day of (the interview). When I brought (Foshee) over (last fall), we had to find another coach. I reached out to Jeff because I knew he was in transition. He’s a great coach. I interviewed with him when he was at Stanhope Elmore. I’ve known Jeff a long time. I knew what kind of person he was and what kind of coach he was.”
Foshee, 52, started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Alabama under Gene Stallings in 1996. When Stallings retired at the end of the season, Foshee went back to Millbrook to work for his father Jimmy as the Mustangs’ defensive coordinator. A 1990 graduate of Stanhope Elmore, he served as the defensive coordinator until 1999 when his father retired, then took over as the head coach and athletic director in 2000.
He served for 16 seasons as the Mustangs’ head coach, compiling a 46-23 mark in six years at the Class 5A level and a 59-49 mark over the remaining 10 years once Stanhope Elmore was reclassified as 6A. Those 16 years include 12 playoff berths, including the 5A semifinals in 2004 and the 6A quarterfinals in 2010.
That was all forgotten in the spring of 2016 when he was accused of paying a teacher to fix grades, resulting in his resignation and an 18-month suspension on his teaching certificate. While he was never red flagged by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, it remains an obstacle for employment at any school.
“This bull that happened to me seven or eight years ago has hurt me at both PCA and Trinity,” he said. “They both wanted to hire me (this past season) but they look up my name and that stuff pops up.”
Carter said school administrators were aware of the accusations in Elmore County.
“There are concerns on any coach you hire because you’re dealing with a person,” Carter said. “But, no, I didn’t have to do too much (selling Foshee’s past) to the board. I even called Mr. (Steve) Savarese (past executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association) and he vouched for him. There are coaches out there who know what kind of coach he is and what kind of person he is and I felt like he was a good fit for me.
“Again, we had some good applicants. We put a committee together and our committee came up with the best candidate for us.”
Foshee had applied at several area schools, including Autaugaville, Prattville, Elmore County and Park Crossing, in an effort to get in five more years for retirement benefits. He finally got an offer to serve as a defensive assistant in 2018 at Curry, then took over as the head coach in 2019 and 2020. In the spring of 2021, he accepted a job as the head football coach at Hale County High but stepped down in a matter of weeks to become a defensive coordinator at Marbury for Hayden Stockton.
After Stockton was fired in the spring of 2022, Foshee completed the school year for his 25th year in coaching, then retired from the public school system and was contemplating his next move when Carter called.
“The way he coaches and the way I coach is a lot alike,” Carter said. “He’s a player’s coach, just like I am. He cares about the kids, not only in the classroom but outside of football and other sports. He truly cares for them. And that sold me on him, too.”
He filled several different roles last season as Carter juggled head coaching and headmaster duties.
“I helped everywhere he needed me,” Foshee said. “I helped probably more on offense than I did the defense. He ran the defense, but there were times I would run it until he got out there. I did the practice schedule every day. I just took all that off of him.”
Foshee said the players have been going through offseason drills in preparation for their first season as an AHSAA member.
“I think the biggest thing is the mindset of the kids, how we work,” Foshee said. “Like that old saying, ‘to go places you’ve never been you’ve got to do things you’ve never done’ and that’s kind of my feeling about these kids. We’ve never been in the Alabama High School Athletic Association, so we’re going to have to do things we’ve never done. And I’ve probably got to implement that more in the offseason program and the weight room program.”
Foshee has worked at 4A, 5A and 6A programs, but this will be the first time he will be directing a Class 1A program.
“You’ve got less coaches, you’ve got less players,” he noted. “You’ve got to work more kids on both sides of the ball. You’ve got to be more organized in your practice schedule to get as many reps as you can on both sides of the ball.”
Carter said the Generals’ region that includes Autaugaville, Billingsley, Verbena, Maplesville and three other schools is actually more suited for Autauga than its Class AAA designation in AISA this past season.
“I don’t think the journey is any harder than we’re used to,” Carter said, “because the teams we’re playing are going to match up better because their (enrollment) numbers match up with our numbers.”
For Foshee, it’s been a long and grueling eight-year journey to return to the role of being a head football coach in central Alabama. He’s grateful for the opportunity at Autauga Academy.
“I wanted to be a head coach again,” Foshee said. “I really like it out here. There’s a lot of good people out here and it’s a good school.”
