AHSAA HALL
- Updated: November 16, 2025
Austin, Smith and Strain give area three selections in 12-member Class of 2026, announced Sunday.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
Area legends Ricky Austin, Jeff Smith and Larry Strain highlight a 12-member 2026 Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame class, the AHSAA announced Sunday.
The class included administrators Jamie Chapman, John Hardin, Kimberly Kiel and Willie Moore; football coaches Smith and Strain; basketball coaches Austin, Owen Butts, Anthony Edwards, Willie Maxey, and Joseph Pettway; and, selected from the “Old-Timers’ Division, track coach Samuel Pettaway.
Ricky Austin
A graduate of Spring Garden (1984), Southern Union Community College and Jacksonville State University (1995), Austin, 60, combined his love for basketball and family to another level. He returned to his alma mater in 1996 and has remained there. He has coached boys’ and girls’ basketball and volleyball over the last 30 years.
His won-loss record coaching girls’ basketball was 790-169 heading into the 2025-26 season. He also coached the boys’ team, but stepped down with a 216-182 record.
Austin’s combined varsity girls’ and boys’ record is 1,006 wins and 351 losses. His girls’ basketball teams have won nine state championships.
He has coached volleyball since 1996 compiling a 688-323 record with three state titles.
With wife Dana by his side for many of those years, his girls’ teams won Class 1A state titles in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025 – earning 1A Coach-of-Year honors from the AHSADCA/AHSAA each year.
Austin was named the NFHS Alabama Coach of the Year for girls’ basketball in 2023 and has been selected by the Alabama Sportswriters Association as 1A girls’ coach of the year eight times.
His girls’ team in the 2007-08 season finished 36-0 and followed with a 30-3 record the next season. The program has won the 1A girls’ basketball title the last three years with a combined 105-3 record.
Austin’s teams have won 30 or more games 14 times – including the last six seasons. Daughter Ace Austin earned Miss Basketball honors in 2004 and 2005 and is a freshman at the University of Alabama.
He and Dana were named HPER Female and Male Alumni of the Year in 2005.
Spring Garden High School’s basketball court was named in Austin’s honor in 2005.
Austin learned of his AHSAA Hall selection Friday, on the way to scout a basketball game. The news came via a voice mail from AHSAA executive director Heath Harmon.
“I’m very, very surprised and very humbled,” Austin said. “When I called him, that was the last thing on my mind. When he congratulated me on it, I thought, ‘Did I just hear him right? Did he really say that?’
“This is way bigger than me. There are just so many people that have made this and been a big part of this.”
Jeff Smith
The 1987 Wellborn grad, 56, earned his college degree in physical education and biology from Jacksonville State University in 1991.
He learned to love football at both stops – first from his high school coach, Alabama High School HOF member Mike Battles, Sr., and next from his collegiate coach and Alabama Sports HOF member Bill Burgess.
Smith shined as a player, earning team captain at both schools.
He began his career as an educator and coach in 1992 at Handley High School, where he served as an assistant football coach, head track coach and the team’s strength coach.
Smith moved to Hueytown High School in 1993 as an assistant coach for Battles, also serving as head track and head wrestling coach through 1996.
Smith moved to Gautier (MS) High School with Battles in 1996, helping the team go 10-0, then returned to Alabama in 1997 to become head football coach at Ohatchee. He compiled a 41-24 record over the next six years, reaching the state playoffs twice.
Smith was also named Calhoun County Coach of the Year in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
He moved back to Hueytown in 2003 as head football coach. He inherited a program that was 0-10 the year before and compiled a 35-31 record over the next six seasons. He was named Hueytown Teacher of the Year in 2005, the Monday Morning Quarterback Club Coach of the Year in 2006, Birmingham News Western Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2006 and Bob Finley Coach of the Year in 2007.
Smith also served as president of the Jefferson County Football Coaches group in 2008. His teams reached the state playoffs four times.
In 2009, Smith and his family returned to Wellborn, where he has served as head football coach since. He also served as head track coach and started indoor track for his students.
It is also the place where he coached his two boys, saw his daughter every Friday night on the sidelines in her role as a cheerleader, and saw his wife working in the school office every day. Sons Judd and Jett are on his coaching staff now, his daughter is a teacher, and his wife still works with the school.
Over the last 17 seasons, Smith has compiled a 111-74 coaching record with 12 state playoff appearances and one region championship. In 2023, he moved past Coach Battles to become the winningest football coach in school history.
Smith has been selected Calhoun County Coach of the Year four times (2011, 2012, 2013, 2023), was named FNN Coach of the Year, and ALFCA Coach of the Year (2022). He is District 6 representative on the AHSADCA Football Coaches Committee.
He served as a coach for the North in the North-South Classic in 2014 and as head coach in 2020. Also in 2020, he was presented the AHSAA’s prestigious Making a Difference Award for Class 3A.
The school named the field in Smith’s honor this season, and the school yearbook was dedicated to him in the 2021-22 school year. His overall head coaching record is 187-129 over 29 seasons.
“I’m just very humbled and honored,” Smith said. “I’ve been very blessed. The good Lord has looked after me and my family over the years, and it’s a very humbling experience.”
Larry Strain
Strain, 63, had an outstanding career as a football coach and girls’ basketball coach. He graduated from Randolph County High School in 1981 and earned his college degree from the University of Alabama.
He was head football and basketball coach at Woodland High School from 1999-2014. His football squad compiled a 100-78 record, reaching the playoffs 12 times and the Class 2A state championship game in 2004 and 2006.
His girls’ basketball team at Woodland was 475-239 with 2A state titles in 2013 and 2014, and a Class 2A state runner-up in 2011.
During Strain’s tenure, daughter Courtney Strain became the AHSAA’s all-time leading scorer with 5,283 points. Daughter Leah Strain closed her career ranked second with 4,566 points and ranks third all-time in assists (1,123).
Larry Strain moved to White Plains for one year and then to Handley in 2015 as head football coach and athletic director. He compiled an 84-36 football coaching record through 2024, when he stepped down as head football coach.
His overall football coaching record over 26 seasons was 186-122. His Handley teams won the Class 4A state championship in 2016 and 2020 and reached the state playoffs nine times in his 10-year tenure.
Strain also coached boys’ basketball at Handley from 2018-2024, compiling a 155-132 record reaching the Elite 8 in 2022. He has served as an assistant coach for the girls’ team, which was coached by daughter Courtney.
Strain has received numerous coaching awards including NFHS Section 3 Coach of the Year in 2020-21. He was named ASWA 4A Coach of the Year in 2020, AHSAA 4A Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2020, and the Randolph Leader Coach of the Year in 2004.
He has coached in the Alabama-Mississippi Classic and North-South All-Star football games. He coached in the Alabama-Mississippi Basketball Classic and the North-South Classic.
He also served on the AHSAA Football Coaches Committee from 2020-2024.
“All I can say is, it’s a huge honor,” Strain said. “I’m very humbled and blessed to be considered to be in the hall of fame. …
“It is a combination of a large group of people. It ain’t just me. It’s the people from the parents and coaches and the players who bought into what we’re trying to do over the years.”
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