Brett Greenberg
The Tuscaloosa News
Tuscaloosa County High School hired Adam Winegarden as its new football coach last month. He comes from Auburn High, where he compiled a 56-19 record.
"This is a mission job for me, not really a football job," he said. "I'm really excited about pouring into the community and using our program as a tool to bring value to the community."
In 12 years at Hillcrest (2010-11), Fairhope (2012-14) and Auburn (2015-2020), Winegarden compiled a 105-30 record, reaching the playoffs each of the 12 seasons and losing in last year's Class 7A state championship game.
"We want people to leave our program better prepared for the real world," said Winegarden. "We want them to have a tremendous experience in our program."
At Hillcrest, he went 21-3 in the regular season and made the third round of the playoffs in 2011. Winegarden talked about his experiences and what he learned in his first big head coaching job.
"Hillcrest is an awesome community with a lot of great people," he added. "I had a lot of great players and coaching staffs and it was a great experience because the whole community rallied together to get the program off the ground."
Winegarden then coached the Fairhope Pirates to a 28-8 record, losing in the second round of the playoffs each of his three years at the helm.
"Our program brought a lot of success and excitement to the town," said Winegarden. "It was a great time for myself and my family."
Winegarden then returned coached Auburn High for six seasons, producing 21 all-state players and a 27-9 region record.
Winegarden mentioned the relationships, experiences and memories at his time at Auburn.
"It's tough leaving my players and coaches because a lot of what we're doing is in the relationship business," he added. "The program is in great hands and will have a lot of success. Those kids really believe in each other."
The approach has been the same at each of Winegarden's stops.
"I take every aspect of the program and see how we can improve it," he added. "The goal is to build a great program and the great teams will follow."
Winegarden faces a challenge in turning around a program that has made the playoffs just once in Class 7A (2014) and has had five head coaches since 2015.
"I felt like I could bring value to a lot of people and really connect the community at a higher level," said Winegarden. "My family lives a mile from the school and I've been driving past the stadium for 10 years."
Winegarden says the Tuscaloosa County football team is in full force for workouts and says he has three daily goals.
"I want to make sure I make the facility better, worked to make the team better and worked to create better relationships."
The Wildcats went 3-7 in 2020.
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