Bryan Moore spent last December on the sideline of the Class 7A state championship game, leading Opelika against powerhouse Thompson. Now the veteran coach is trying to bring that kind of big-game experience to Foley, a program he took over in January after Foley hired him away from Opelika.
Moore’s task is steep: helping the Lions climb into the upper tier of Alabama’s largest classification, newly renamed Class 6A after this year’s realignment folded the old Class 7A into a smaller number of top-tier schools. Speaking last week at Baldwin County High School’s Football Media Day, Moore made clear he understands both the opportunity and the challenge in front of him.
“I’m encouraged by what I’ve heard and the long-time vision of Foley or I wouldn’t be here,” Moore said. “I believe in it wholeheartedly.”
A Familiar Imbalance
For more than a decade, the state’s top classification has been dominated by schools in Region 2, centered on Central Alabama, and Region 3, centered on the Birmingham metro, while programs in Region 1 around Mobile and Region 4 around Huntsville have struggled to keep pace.
The numbers back up the perception. Over the 12 years the Alabama High School Athletic Association placed the top 32 teams in Class 7A, only one program from the Mobile or Huntsville areas won a state championship — McGill-Toolen, which beat Spain Park for the title in 2015. No team from Huntsville reached a 7A title game during that stretch, and McGill-Toolen itself lost in the championship game the other two times it advanced, both defeats to Hoover.
Moore, who has coached in North Alabama and most recently at Opelika, said he believes the gap comes down to resources.
“It’s the investment in football,” he said. “Go look at their places. Go to Trussville. See that place. See Hoover, what they have. See Thompson, what they have. Central, Opelika, Auburn. Ride through there. It’s like the SEC vs. the Group of 5. You are pouring money into it. You have really good players — homegrown, baseline talent — mixed with tradition and resources, and you get products like they are putting out there.”
Thompson, under coach Mark Freeman, has been the standard-bearer, winning six Class 7A titles over the past seven years. Hoover has won three during that broader era, and Central-Phenix City has added two. Add McGill-Toolen’s 2015 championship, and that accounts for essentially every state title in the classification.
“I would say they are like 10 years ahead,” Moore said of the Birmingham and Central Alabama programs. “I’ve seen it, lived it. I was there as an assistant and as a head coach. … I don’t mean it is going to take us 10 years to catch up. I just mean they are doing some of the things we are doing now long before us.”
Rebuilding a Foley Program Starved for Playoff Wins
Moore inherits a Foley program that has not won a playoff game since Todd Watson was head coach in 2014, and the Lions have reached the postseason only twice since then. A restructured playoff format could help change that. Class 6A is moving to a 24-team playoff bracket this season, with six teams advancing from each of the four regions instead of the traditional four.
“It allows more kids to have more of an experience,” Moore said of the expanded field. “What are we here to do? … It’s going to put more really good teams in the playoffs.”
Moore also said his early impressions of Region 1’s coaching ranks in Mobile and Baldwin County have been encouraging.
“I went to the region meeting right when I got here,” he said. “It was freezing cold, late January. I walked in that room and thought, ‘Man, there are some good coaches here. There are some guys with state championship experience.’ It’s Baldwin County and Mobile trying to raise our level to compete with the Opelikas, Auburns and Centrals.”
Foley opens Moore’s first season as head coach on the road against McGill-Toolen on Aug. 21.