BREAKING: Blackwell steps down as St. James football coach
In a somewhat surprising move, Aubrey Blackwell announced on Monday that he would step down as St. James head football coach and would take a job at Spanish Fort High School. (File Photo)
By TIM GAYLE
Just 15 months after accepting what he considered his dream job as head football coach at St. James, Aubrey Blackwell is stepping down from the Trojans to accept another job.
“I’m so grateful for (athletic director) Larry Ware and (head of school) Larry McLemore for believing in me and giving me an opportunity,” Blackwell said. “I’ve done this for 21 years, 10 as a head coach, and for 21 years my baseball team or my football team, whichever it had been, had gotten 100 percent of everything I had. I’ve got four more years with my son in my house and five more with my daughter and these next four to five years, I want to give them 100 percent of me.”
“It’s been a hard last five or six years for me and it’s time for me to step back and slow down a little bit and be a better husband and a better father. St. James has been good to me and my kids, but I’m at a point in my life where I want to do something for my family and my kids now and giving them more time is what I need to do.”
Blackwell led the Trojans to a 6-5 record last year, losing in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs to W.S. Neal. Spanish Fort head coach Chase Smith has been looking for an offensive coordinator since Joel Williams accepted a job in mid-May as the head coach at Elberta High and Blackwell’s name has been reportedly linked to that opening.
“I’m considering options and evaluating what is the best step for my family, but I wanted to do this now so St. James can move forward,” Blackwell said, adding that his decision to step down now is part of “God’s timing.”
“I really wanted to try my best to push through it and see everything from the other side,” he said. “There is an opportunity that I feel like at this point would be one that you would make a decision for. It’s not just me completely walking away.”
It will be difficult for St. James administrators to conduct a quality search for a head coach in June. Ware indicated on Monday the Trojans would attempt to find Blackwell’s replacement but admitted he may have to consider other options.
“My initial thought right now is I’d rather open it up on an interim basis is because it’s so late in the game,” Ware said.
Two likely candidates are already on campus. Ware served as a head coach at G.W. Carver, Robert E. Lee and more recently at Valiant Cross Academy and continues to serve as an assistant coach for the Trojans each fall. Jeff Corley, a candidate for the job before Blackwell was hired, serves as the team’s defensive coordinator.
“I would be a very last resort,” Ware said. “If it comes down to me, it’s because nobody else could give us what we were looking for. I want to be fair to the kids and if I stepped into that role, it’s not going to get all of me.”
Blackwell met on Monday morning with the coaches, then with the players to inform them of his decision.
“They’re great men that know football and were there with Jimmy Perry,” Blackwell said of the coaching staff. “They know the game, they love the school and they’re going to continue to do a great job. We hired Hayden Stockton, a former head coach, and he’s a great addition to that staff as well.”
Stockton would be a possible candidate as well, although he isn’t familiar with the coaching staff he would inherit if he was hired as the head coach.
Blackwell came to the school in March, 2024 from Jackson (Miss.) Academy, where he led the Raiders to a 9-4 season in 2022 and an 8-5 record in 2023, reaching the second round of the MAIS 6A playoffs each year.
He is familiar with the Mobile area, serving as an assistant coach under Perry at St. Paul’s Episcopal in 2010 and 2011 and under Steve Mask in 2012. He followed Perry to St. James and served as the Trojans’ offensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014 before accepting his first head coaching position at Catholic in 2015.
After a 4-6 season in 2015, he turned the Knights’ program around, guiding the program to an 8-3 record in 2016 and its first playoff appearance in eight years. Catholic reached the second round of the playoffs in 2017 and 2018, the quarterfinals in 2019 and the state finals in 2020. He compiled a 54-19 record in six year, but wanted an opportunity to coach at a larger program. In 2021, he accepted a job at Benjamin Russell, but left the program after a year for Jackson Academy.
“I’m a coach and I still want to make a difference in kids’ lives and I still feel like that’s where my calling is,” Blackwell said. “I know that’s who I am whether I’m an assistant (coach) or if I end up being an administrator down the road. I want to be a part of making a difference in kids’ lives but the kids that need me the most right now are my two. They need a better version of me than they’ve had.”