HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The search for the next Head Coach of the Hanceville Bulldogs ended Thursday night and Ryan Brewer is excited to step in and take the reins of the program. Brewer is replacing Head Coach Cody McCain who stepped down in April after spending three seasons with the Bulldogs. Brewer is bringing several years of coaching experience with him to Hanceville, starting with the head coaching job at Helena Middle School from 2008-14 and a couple stops as on offensive coordinator at Russellville and Haleyville after that. Brewer served as an offensive assistant at Orange County High School the past two seasons and now he’ll be running things on the sidelines here in Hanceville.
Brewer reached out to Principal Wakefield to express interest in the open job and now that he’s set to take over things, he’s looking forward to hitting the ground running and laying the foundation for the culture he wants his team to have.
“I heard that the job was opening a while back and I just kind of kept my eyes on it while waiting for them to hire a principal and once they hired Mr. (Daniel) Wakefield I reached out to him. I’ve been wanting to be a head coach for a while now and an opportunity became available at a place that I feel is comfortable for my family,” Brewer said. “I have three boys and my wife is a teacher as well so we wanted to find a place where we felt like our family could thrive and it puts us right in between Birmingham and Northwest Alabama where we have family, so it really helps us see them more often. I also saw that it was a great opportunity to be at a place where I can think we can be very successful as well. So, I’m looking forward to getting there and meeting those kids and developing a culture and a passion for the game but even more so a passion for life and doing the right thing not only on the field but in the classroom and in the community.”
Brewer has helped build programs from scratch twice in his coaching career at Helena and Orange Beach, so he has plenty of experience in that department. What he believes is the most important part of that process is building relationships and instilling value in everyone in the program.
“Every experience in life is a learning opportunity so I learned a lot down here offensively and defensively that I didn’t have in my toolbox prior, and I learned a lot of important stuff about building relationships,” Brewer said. “I learned more about the importance of instilling value in people and I really look forward to the opportunity to meet our coaches and invest in them and invest in the kids because ultimately that’s what its all about, leaving a positive example for those kids because one day they may not be NFL players but more than likely they’ll be in a situation where they’re a husband and a Dad and I look forward to being part of that process in their lives.”
Brewer has spent most of his coaching career on the offensive side of the ball and wants to put an exciting and explosive team on the field but he’s confident that he and his staff will be able to get the most out of their team no matter what style they plan to run.
“In the last 15 years I’ve been able to learn enough to where I don’t really need a certain type of kid to be able to run what I want to run so I’m going to have to meet the kids and see what works best with what we have,” Brewer said. “Typically, I like to spread it out a little bit and its an exciting brand of football that I like to create. If we have the kids to do that we will and if we have to do things a little differently, we’ll do that. We’ll find a way to get it done.”
The Hanceville Bulldogs will open the season on their home field against Vinemont in August.
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