Donoho taps Smith
- Updated: April 2, 2024
Falcons’ quiet search for a head coach concludes with hiring of former Munford, Talladega head coach to lead football program.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
Donoho has quietly searched for a head football coach for weeks, and that search came to conclusion with Tuesday’s announcement that the school hired Bill Smith.
The school announced Smith’s hiring via social media. Smith will also serve as Donoho’s strength and conditioning coach for all sports and be an assistant track coach for field events.
Smith will replace Jeremy Satcher, who has completed certification and is weighing options for public-school or college jobs.
“I did complete state certification and looking on working on my retirement years in a public school or in state public college,” Satcher said. “Wherever God leads me.”
Smith is 77-85 over 15 seasons as a head coach. He most recently coached te 2022 and 2023 seasons at Talladega but has also been a head coach at Huffman, Fayette County, Munford, Shades Valley and Crossville.
Smith, who is vested to retire in the public-school system, said the connection with Donoho started with a call from Satcher.
“I have known Coach Satcher for a while, and he told me that he was going to be getting back into the public-school system,” Smith said. “He’s getting married and wants to get back into public education and in the Alabama Retirement (System).”
Conversations have been ongoing for about six weeks, Smith said.
Smith said he’ll spend most of his day at Donoho working with athletes in the weight room during their physical education periods. He said the emphasis on strength work is reminiscent of his first job at Muscle Shoals, as strength lab coordinator, in 1992.
He has a Master’s degree in exercise physiology and, at the time, had no plans to coach a specific sport. Three years into his stay at Muscle Shoals, he became the middle-school football coach and fell in love with coaching football.
“I’ve coached football ever since,” he said, “… but if there’s something that I feel I’m an expert in, it’s strength and conditioning.”
Smith said he weighed other options outside of the public system and was considering a move to Mobile before the Donoho opening arose.
“I met with a few of the players today,” he said. “They’ve got some good skill players. We’re just going to get in the weight room and get bigger, faster, stronger.
“There are awesome young men and women there, high academics, and I’m just really looking forward to a change.”
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