FOLEY, Ala. -- With a Foley High School football coaching record of 119-53-2 over a 20 year period and a 10 year span of going 84-20, it is no surprise Foley native Lester Smith will be inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in Montgomery on Monday, March 21.
Taking place at the Renaissance Hotel at the Montgomery Convention Center, the banquet will honor 12 people who have contributed to athletics in the state of Alabama. This is the 21st class of inductees and in addition to Smith, Baldwin County native and former football coach Lyle Underwood, who was selected as an “Old-timer”, will also be inducted.
Nicknamed “Bull”, Underwood was head coach for Baldwin County High School for 19 seasons and had a 102-38-3 overall record. Graduating from Foley High School in 1951, Underwood coached from 1960-64 and 1966-80 and was named Baldwin County Coach of the Year four times. He has also been inducted into the Foley High School and Baldwin County Athletic Halls of Fame, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association website.
Notified in November that he had been inducted, Smith said he was “very surprised and humbled to be chosen. I am so appreciative for all the players and coaches and my family who made this possible and all the hard work they did over the years.”
Smith, now principal at Alabama Gulf Coast Christian Academy in Summerdale, was the quarterback of the Foley High School teams that went 19-0 and were State Champs in 1961. In 1962, while attending East Mississippi Junior College, Smith held the school record for completing 204 out of 330 passes and threw for 17 touchdowns.
Also attending Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and graduating in 1966 , Smith set the school's completion record for 1965. Returning to Foley to began his coaching career in 1969, Smith remained there until 1986 when he became assistant principal and then principal.
The 1974-83 seasons were “the pinnacle of my career” (the 84-20 seasons), Smith said, and in 1977 went 10-0 and was ranked number three in the state.
“I loved coaching and all the teams worked hard and we had some really great talent in those years. They were super dedicated to the sport and very hard-nosed teams,” Smith said.
And even though Smith credits all his players with being hard workers, he did have the privilege of coaching such standout players as Louis Dean, who went to Alabama, Herbert Casey, who went to Auburn and Julio Jones in his freshman year, who was a powerhouse at Alabama.
In 1995, Smith became Baldwin County Athletic Director for BC Schools and then returned to Foley to reenergize the football program in 2001. He stayed there until 2004 when he went back to work at the BC Board of Education as the Human Resources Director until he retired in June 2010.
During his coaching tenure, five of his teams won BC Championships and four reached the state playoffs. He was named 1993 Rotary Club “Citizen of the Year” and is a member of Baldwin County Coaches, Baldwin County Middle School Athletic, Foley High School and East Mississippi Athletic Hall of Fames.
Over the years, Smith has had an opportunity to work with many coaches and had the unique privilege of coaching his son Keith as a player and then working with him for four years at Foley High School as a coach. Keith also thought that was a rare and special opportunity for him as well.
“I will never forget sitting in the locker room before my sophomore year before the B.C. Rain game. He stood in front of the chalkboard and said, 'Men, we are going to score on the third play of the game' and that got our undivided attention. Everyone was on the edge of their seats to see how we were going to accomplish that feat. He started explaining and drawing plays on the board and suddenly stopped. 'Men, I changed my mind. We are going to score the second play of the game.' We received the kickoff, ran one play and then Lewis Wilson scored on the second play of the game on a 75 yard touchdown run. I will never forget that as long as I live,” Keith said.
Keith was two years old when Smith was head coach at Foley and remembered it was a challenging time because his dad was replacing coaching legend Ivan Jones and FHS was moving into the highest classification for high school football, not to mention it was the late 1960's and social unrest was rampant.
“He had two tough seasons mixed in with three very competitive teams in those first five years. The 10 year streak is truly remarkable. No team in Southwest Alabama had a better record and no one played a tougher schedule,” Keith said.
Clearly impressed by his dad's coaching skills early on, Keith said he used to love to go places with his dad and hang out with him. “I was always impressed by how people would respond to him in the stores or restaurants. He was very well respected, admired and loved by all of his students and players. They knew he tried to treat them fair and right. I guess that's what made me want to get into teaching and coaching. I saw the positive impact he had on everyone he came in contact with.”
Becoming the middle school coach in 1993, Keith credits their success with the coaching instruction his dad and men like him gave to the players. “They volunteered their time to teach our players about football and about life and I enjoyed standing back and watching them coach. Our kids got a lot of outstanding instruction because of those men.”
As offensive coordinator for his dad those four years, Keith recalls they didn't have the best season but it was great working closely with his dad.
“He never made excuses but he came in at another tough time. We had just lost the Gulf Shores population and he became deathly ill and missed five weeks of the first season and developed diabetes in 2002. We played a brutal schedule and had a rash of injuries as well as other things that happened. But he came to work and gave everything he had everyday to try and turn things around. He often told us that 'adversity causes some men to break and others to break records' and 'when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade',” Keith said.
The players that stayed with him through those tough years, Keith said, learned what it was to work, sacrifice and give everything you have to a cause. “I don't think I have ever been prouder of him than to watch him handle those tough times like he did. And he would say 'tough times don't last but tough people do'.”
Summing up his feeling about his dad, Keith said “He is the greatest man I know and a very special person. He is greatly loved, respected and admired by a lot of people in Baldwin County and throughout the state of Alabama. I am so proud to be able to call him dad.”
Also working with Smith at Foley for three years was Offensive Line Coach Marcus Early, who had nothing but praise for Smith.
“He is such a quality person and a good, decent guy. He had such a great Christian attitude and was so positive all the time. Not to mention he ran the best triple option play in the state as far as I'm concerned, “ Early said.
Being an offensive tackle and linebacker while playing for Smith at Foley, Early said Smith not only talked the talk but walked the walk as well. “I never heard him say a bad word about anyone and he always ended practice early on Wednesday so those who wanted to go to church could. He was and is a great family man.”
Early graduated from FHS in 1988 and came back to coach there for 12 years. He also coached at Daphne and is in his third year of coaching at Gulf Shores High School where he also teaches Drivers Education.
Coach Greg Dodd, who is at Robertsdale High School now, also shared some memories of working with Smith.
“I was his defensive back coach the first year and his defensive coordinator the second year and it really comes as no surprise to me that he's being inducted. He deserves it no doubt and it's an awesome opportunity for him. His coaching skills were way ahead of any other coach at the time and he had a way of talking to people that was really great. Such a good personality and a great family man and a man of faith. He went out of his way to talk to you,” Dodd said
One of the things that sticks with Dodd is the football checklist Smith brought with him the first time they met.
“This stack of papers was at least one inch thick and had everything you could imagine relating to football and exercise and even what to eat on game days. I've never seen anything like it and I still use it today. If you put a back on it, you could sell it as a book. I'm a better father and coach because of the things I learned from Coach Smith,” Dodd said.
“This Hall of Fame induction is so well-deserved and I don't think you could find a better individual who could receive it. He has always carried himself so well and interacted great with Keith on the field. I believe he is the most winningest coach in Baldwin County. I have the utmost respect for him and he was such a great example for me as a player and a coach,” Early said.
According to the AHSAA, there are four nomination categories for Hall of Fame inductions, Coach, Administrator, Old-Timer and Other. The coach category specifies “a person who has experienced outstanding achievement as a coach in AHSSA member schools. A retired coach is eligible for nomination after a minimum of 15 years of service and an active coach is eligible after a minimum of 30 years of service.” The Old-Timer category specifies a “person who has a minimum of 15 years of service to AHSAA member schools and has been coaching for 30 years or more.”
Nominees must have “good moral and ethical character, as judged by acceptable social standards, demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities, demonstrated a high quality of school, community and American citizenship, demonstrated a level of achievement or service that stands out from the ordinary or is slightly above ordinary, achieved honors and recognition that bring credit to the school community and AHSAA member schools and accomplished achievements in, or provided service to, an AHSAA member school.
The Hall of Fame Committee is made up of 17 members and there were 69 nominees for this years ballot. Sponsors of the event are the Alabama High School Athletic Directors and Coaches Association and the AHSAA. Corporate sponsors include al.com, Alfa Insurance, SouthPoint Bank, Coca-Cola, Encore Rehabilitation, ESP Screen Printing, Russell Athletic and Wilson Sporting Goods.
