Calera High School’s head football coach Ken Adams resigned last week to take the same position at Ardmore High School in north Alabama.

Adams led the Eagles to a Region 4 championship and an appearance in the Class 2A playoffs last year after finishing the regular season undefeated.

&uot;It’s been a great run,&uot; Adams said. &uot;I appreciate everybody in the community and at the school.

&uot;The hard part is leaving the kids. It’s just so difficult to do that.&uot;

Calera went 38-47 during the nine years Adams was head coach. The Eagles finished 11-1 last season, losing their final game to Southern Choctaw in the second round of the playoffs.

Following the season, he was named coach of the year by both the Shelby County Coaches Association and the Shelby County Reporter.

Adams will now lead an Ardmore squad tucked in Class 4A’s Region 7 with playoff teams like East Limestone, North Jackson and West Point.

If he is going to face a Shelby County opponent next season, it will have to come in the form of a meeting with Chelsea or Montevallo in the 4A playoffs.

&uot;My luck is that we’ll make the playoffs, and in the first round we’ll probably have to play Montevallo,&uot; Adams said. &uot;That’s one guru in Jim King that I wouldn’t want to face again.&uot;

Adams led Calera to a 34-15 win against the Bulldogs as the two schools renewed their rivalry last season.

Adams and King were instrumental in bringing that game – one of Shelby County’s oldest rivalries – back to the regular season.

Adams was originally hired by former Calera principal Daniel Goggins in 1996.

&uot;I want to thank Mr. Goggins, who hired me,&uot; he said.

&uot;I wish everybody at Calera the best. They are a great group of people.