Causey leaving Demopolis High for Pelham
Demopolis football coach and athletic director Tom Causey has accepted the head football coaching position at Class 6A Pelham High School. The move leaves Demopolis in search of a head coach for the first time since 2007.
“I think it is an opportunity,” Causey said of the decision to move to Pelham. “There is an explosion of growth right there now and I think the school is going to grow right along with the community as it is growing.”
Causey led the Tigers to a 67-29 record in eight seasons, capturing the 2009 Class 5A state championship in the process.
“I’ve been real proud of what he has been able to accomplish here, on the field and off,” Demopolis High principal Dr. Tony Speegle said. “There’s not a whole lot of coaches out there that have Bible studies for coaches and players, that are willing to put in the time early in the morning, that is so well thought of through the AHSAA. His track record speaks for itself. His kids that have an opportunity to go and play at the college level, they stick. They perform. That has been good to see. It has been fun to keep up with those kids.”
“Honestly, the difficulty was the people in this community,” Causey said of the factors that made his decision to leave a hard one to make. “The Mike Randalls of this community. The kids in this locker room. Eight years here and the only place my kids know as home is here. That’s a difficult thing to do. I know God is leading me here. This is something that I’ve prayed hard about. God put it on me. I fought it. I did. He kept leading me that way.”
The opportunity to move to Pelham came when PHS principal Dr. Jason Yohn reached out to Causey. Yohn served as the principal of Smiths Station High last year when the school made Causey a similar offer.
“The people,” Causey said of what he will remember about his time in Demopolis “The times that you have with people, the tough times, the losses. You remember scratching and fighting and clawing. You remember the guys when they were hurt that come back and overcome things. You remember the people that you work with day in and day out. You’re closer to the people that you work with than you are your own family at times.”
“From a principal’s standpoint, it’s very big because he understood the employee/employer relationship. We could sit down and talk about things from a hierarchy standpoint,” Speegle said. “In the year and a half that I have been the high school principal here, we have not had any cross words or any differences of opinion. Those things are rare.”
In his 15-season head coaching career, Causey has compiled a 113-63 record at Dallas County, Andalusia and Demopolis.
Causey leaves behind a team that went 8-3 and won the Class 5A, Region 4 championship. In eight seasons, Causey had 15 players sign football scholarships.
“These kids are going to be successful no matter who is coaching them because they are winners and hardworking guys,” Causey said.
In addition to football, Causey was selected as the 2011 St. Nicholas as part of the Christmas on the River celebration for his commitment to the welfare of children. Causey was also instrumental in the creation of the Demopolis Youth Football League, which had its inaugural season in 2008.
“I don’t know if the community fully understands what they just lost,” Speegle said.