Clements High School’s first-year football coach has a simple strategy for reversing the fortunes of a program that went from four straight playoff appearances to 1-9 records in each of the past four seasons.

“We’re trying to build, trying to have some consistency. We want to always try to win in the present but have a plan for the future,” said Cody McCain, who came to Class 3A Clements in April after two years at 1A Pleasant Home in Andalusia and one year at 3A Excel.

The 28-year-old is the youngest head football coach in Limestone County, emerging from a pool of 107 applicants to become the Colts’ third coach in three years in early April. Despite being only a decade older than some of his players, the physical education teacher already has earned his master’s degree and is the married father of two sons and a daughter.

Personnel glimpse

McCain said about 51 players in grades 7-12 came out for spring drills, including 36 at the varsity level. He said practices were squeezed into “eight or nine days” after the April 28 tornado inflicted heavy damage to the Coxey and Clements communities, including ripping off the Clements’ field house roof.

“When we finally got to do our spring practice after the storms, most schools were wrapping up practice,” said McCain.

He said the Colts’ roster has more team speed than his players at Pleasant Home, which means he is adapting his offense. He said the defense must be built to stop the run.

“It’ll be a little bit different because, athlete-wise, we have more speed at Clements, while we had big kids at Pleasant Home. I’ll always be a run-first coach but we’ll be more spread out, a little faster and have more of a zone-read option scheme,” McCain said. “At Pleasant Home, we used more of a smash-mouth style. At Clements, we’re going to have to be different because a lot of teams in our region will be bigger so we’ll need to be faster.

“My theory defensively is to study your opponents and build a defensive system off of that. The schedule we play, there are a lot of Wing-T, run-heavy offenses. We’ll present an eight-man defensive front, attack and try to take them out of their comfort zone.”

Among the biggest position battles is at quarterback, with three leading contenders on the depth chart.

“We’ve got three kids working a lot at quarterback. You want to find a kid in each class to work in at quarterback so you’ll always have someone ready by the time he’s a senior. Our number one right now is Onterrio Patrick, who will be a junior. We also have Christian Wilson, a senior, and Ryland Kirk, a freshman,” he said.

Changing the culture

The Clements’ schedule is routinely among the toughest in any classifications in the Alabama High School Athletic Association, which is expanding to seven classes this fall. The Colts remained in 3A, Region 8, which features perennial playoff teams Lauderdale County and Colbert County and two-time defending state champion Madison Academy.

But McCain said facing tough region opponents are something that is beyond the control of his program, preferring to focus on building trust with the help of returning assistant coaches.

He said defensive coordinator Zach Meadows is coaching linebackers and quarterbacks. Nathan Sawyer is teaching the defensive line and wide receivers, and Troy Bivens is in charge of running backs.

McCain, a former defensive lineman and tight end, will call offensive plays and coach the defensive backs. He and Rodney Evans will coach the offensive line.

“Once I got here, the storms hit … we tried to show these kids a different side than just our coaching side. We are taking an interest in the other things they’re doing, whether it’s another sport or another activity. This will help build a relationship that will last all year long,” he said. “The first couple months I was here, we focused on building some trust with the players, and want to continue to do that in the summertime and leading into the fall.”

For the first season, McCain isn’t hinging success on the Colts’ record, instead focusing on player development and improving the program’s outlook.

“I think the biggest indicator of success is if we can change the mindset and attitude of our team, and also change the whole culture of the football program. We want to expect to be successful and expect to win games, and that’s the main thing we’re trying to do,” he said. “You can’t do anything about the schedule so we need to focus on ourselves, and I think we have winnable games. We’ll just have to put ourselves in the best position to win.”

Clements opens the season at 4A Central-Florence on Aug. 29, followed by a home contest with region foe Sheffield.