Former Leroy High, Auburn and NFL wide receiver Sammie Coates coached Columbia High School to its first football win in more than a decade on Aug. 22.
The Streak
The 41-14 victory over Greensboro was Columbia’s first win since October 2015, when the Eagles beat Ardmore 34-16.
The 101 straight losses in between were the most in national high school football history.
That number is difficult to absorb. A player who entered Columbia as a freshman in 2016 and graduated in 2020 never saw the program win a game — and neither did the class after that, or the one after that. An entire decade of students passed through a school where losing was simply what football was.
How the Game Went
Greensboro led 14-0 before 41 unanswered points from Columbia turned the game into the kind of decisive result the program had waited a decade for.
The trailing start is worth noting. A team carrying 101 consecutive losses that falls behind 14-0 has every historical reason to fold. That Columbia instead scored the next 41 points says more about what changed in the program than the final margin does.
The Coach
Coates took over the Eagles in 2025 and is in his second season as head coach.
His path to the job is unusual for a program in Columbia’s position. Coates played at Leroy High School in Washington County, then at Auburn, then in the NFL — a résumé that gives him credibility with teenagers that few coaches at a struggling program can match.
What He Said
“Everything they’ve done, they deserve every moment of this,” Coates said afterward. “I’m just happy for the kids, man. It ain’t nothing about me. It’s about the kids that worked their tail off. I’m glad these kids can experience this. It’s a great experience for them. Now they see what it feels like. They can add to it and we can go back to work next week.”
The last sentence is the coaching point buried in the celebration. A first win after 101 losses can function as an endpoint or a starting point, and Coates was explicitly framing it as the latter.
Then They Did It Again
The Eagles backed it up. Columbia is now 2-0 following a 42-26 win over East Limestone the following week.
Two consecutive wins is a materially different thing than one. A single victory can be dismissed as a favorable matchup; a 2-0 start against different opponents, with 83 points scored across the two games, indicates a team that has changed rather than a team that got a break.
Recognition From Auburn
Former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn expressed pride in a shoutout to his former player on social media.
Why This Kind of Turnaround Is Rare
Programs that lose for a decade generally lose for structural reasons — thin participation numbers, no weight room culture, coaching turnover, and a student body that has stopped seeing football as something worth committing to. None of those problems is solved by a single motivational season.
What a turnaround requires is a coach who stays long enough to change what players expect of themselves, and enough early success to make the next class believe it. Columbia now has both: a coach in his second year, and two wins the current roster earned itself.