Former Pike Road assistant Lee to lead Holtville football
Former Pike Road assistant Cory Lee was selected to lead the Holtville football program. (File Photo)
By TIM GAYLE
Cory Lee has been linked to successful football programs from his days as a linebacker at Prattville High to last year’s run to the 6A semifinals as the defensive coordinator at Pike Road.
But there’s another time in Lee’s past where the work may have been a little overlooked. While other programs in the Mobile area were ultra-successful, Lee’s second job as an assistant coach, working under Nathan McDaniel at Baldwin County High, produced some of his finest work.
“It was probably the best thing for me,” Lee recalled. “It taught me how to coach. We overachieved there. I learned so much how to coach teams that may not have the best athletes in the world.”
Lee finds himself in a similar situation after he was selected as Holtville’s new football coach this week, taking over for the retiring Jason Franklin.
“I think Jason did a great job and brought it a long way from where it was when he got the job,” Lee said. “There are challenges everywhere. They’re all different. But I’ll say from my experience at Baldwin County, I’m not afraid of the perception that your kids are not as athletic as some of the teams you’ll play. They just won a state championship in baseball. Baseball’s not football but it does show you there are some pretty good athletes out there in the community.”
Lee played at Prattville in 2006 and 2007 under coach Bill Clark and in 2008 and 2009 under Jamey DuBose, reaching the 6A finals all four years and winning three state championships. After a career at Southern Illinois, he returned to Prattville as the Lions’ inside linebacker coach for Chad Anderson, then left to work in Bay Minette for McDaniel, a linebackers coach at Prattville when Lee played the position.
In 2020, McDaniel moved on to his current role as Elberta’s head coach, while Lee took a job under Sam Shade at Pinson Valley, winning another state championship. The next year, he was back at Prattville, where he remained until Granger Shook hired him this past spring at Pike Road.
“I knew when we were able to hire Cory that it wasn’t going to be for long,” Shook said, “but I also knew it was the best fit for this program. He’s as prepared to be a head coach as anyone I’ve been around. Holtville got them a phenomenal head coach. Their issue is going to be to keep him. He’s an up-and-coming guy, very organized, an attention-to-detail guy. I was blessed to have had him on my staff.”
Shook said he “will take my time and get the best fit for our players,” but pointed out there are several former coordinators already on his staff so the new coordinator may be a promotion for someone on the staff or an outside hire.
Lee, meanwhile, admitted it wasn’t easy leaving the Patriots.
“Pike Road has been the best job I’ve ever had, as far as day to day, in my career,” he said. “I actually enjoyed coming to work. The kids are great. Coach Shook and his leadership is great. The school, everything, was really, really good.
“But at the end of the day, my goal was to become a head coach and run my own show.”
Even then, Lee pointed out, it was Holtville principal Sean Kreauter who convinced him of the potential at the school.
“He’s got a very clear vision of what he’s trying to do, what he wants,” Lee said. “There are some things that are in place, things that will take place over the next couple of years that will be really exciting for the school and the community. The baseball and softball fields are getting turfed, the football field is about to get turfed, there are talks about a new high school being built in the near future. So you see all those things that are sitting in place, plus the type of people that are out there -- great, hard-working people -- that really makes it attractive.”
Lee will take over his new role as athletic director and head football coach from a guy that has probably had the most success at the school. Franklin had a losing season in his first year at Holtville, but the last six all ended with trips to the playoffs, a school-record six in a row. Franklin also won seven games at the school three times in that stretch, which has only been duplicated once (1972-74).
“They’ve seen they can win,” Lee said. “Now, it’s how do we get them over the hump of winning a playoff game. That’s the next step.”
Holtville was 0-6 under Franklin in playoff games. That’s where Lee hopes his physical style of football will make the difference.
“Coach Franklin was offensively minded, that’s where his background is,” Lee said. “From the film I’ve seen, they like to spread out and get wide splits with the receivers. We’ll do some of that, too, but coming from the opposite side of the football, I want to be more physical. We want to establish the run game, we want to get in heavier sets, condense our sets. We’re going to be preaching and working into our guys about being physical, coming right at people. Sometimes, you’ve just got to man up and beat the man in front of you. To win the big games, that’s what you’ve got to do.”