Editor’s note: This is an opinion column.
By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
Coaches are hired to be fired.
That’s what they say, anyway. But there’s something that just feels off about the way Adam Wallace was relieved of his head coaching duties at Moody High School.
From a purely football standpoint it’s clearly the wrong move at the wrong time, like leaving Tank Bigsby on the sideline and throwing the ball when you’re facing fourth-and-one. I can’t tell you if there were off-the-field issues. I can say that I’m not aware of any. And when I reached out to the St. Clair Schools Superintendent, Mike Howard, he wouldn’t talk directly to me.
His administrative assistant, Nancy Kimsey, called me back and said that the superintendent “does not discuss personnel items, and so we will have no comment.”
That’s OK, Nancy. I probably have enough comments for the both of us.
Moody football has faced some hard times. The Blue Devils had an 0-9 campaign in 2020, but the players there bought into everything Wallace asked them to do. They got in the weight room. They got after it in practice. And in 2021, they became a playoff contender in a region that includes powerhouse programs like Alexandria and Leeds, as well as up-and-coming Center Point.
The Blue Devils finished the season 6-4. They blew out St. Clair County and then beat Springville High in their season finale.
They most likely would have been a playoff team had quarterback A.J. Wallace not gone down with an injury against Alexandria. Without their starting quarterback, Moody lost to Lincoln, 31-19 to miss out on the final playoff spot in 5A Region 6.
Dismissing Wallace at this point, when his son is the school’s starting quarterback and the Blue Devils are coming off of their best season in six years is baffling unless there were off-the-field issues. From the outside, there are no signs of anything like that, so all we’re left to talk about is how this affects the football team going forward and how it affects the class of rising seniors.
In a meeting with the team on Monday to address the situation, school officials told players that they were “doing what’s best” for them, according to multiple people with knowledge of the meeting. After speaking with several Blue Devils players throughout the day on Tuesday, I can tell you that the young men on that team disagree. Vehemently. They’re shocked, and angry, and hurt.
Moody was going to be loaded for bear next season. They were set at quarterback. They returned elements of an excellent offensive line. Their two leading receivers were juniors, and the heir apparent at running back was a sophomore.
After speaking with some of those kids on Tuesday morning after the news of Wallace’s firing spread, several are unsure if they will even play next year.
St. Clair Schools had better be able to hit a home run with their next hire. He’d better be able to get those players and those parents to buy in the way that the 2021 Blue Devils did.
If not, all of that progress will be lost.
I don’t pretend to know Adam Wallace well at all. I can tell you that it was a lot of fun watching him coach. He loved Moody High School. He loved the city. He and his family were well-respected in the community. And anyone who saw him interact with his team knows that he loved those players, too. The joy with which he coached the Blue Devils was evident to everyone.
Moody is losing more than a football coach. Wallace came onto Tribune Sports Live before the November ad velorem vote in St. Clair County and encouraged the residents of the city to vote in favor of the tax in order to provide a new school and updated athletic facilities for Moody.
The measure passed by the slimmest of margins in Moody. It failed almost everywhere else in St. Clair County.
I didn’t know he was going to do that. My co-host, Zack Steele, didn’t know it either.
That’s indicative of what kind of a guy Adam Wallace is, in my opinion. He put himself out there in favor of a measure that his community, his school and his team needed.
That’s character. That’s class. Moody High School is going to miss him dearly.
Bobby Mathews is sports editor for The Tribune. Reach him at bobby.mathews@trussvilletribune.com or @bobbymathews on Twitter.