New coaches approved by board

Published 2:51 pm Thursday, April 19, 2012

Former University of Alabama quarterback Andrew Zow, right, is up for approval by the Shelby County Board of Education during a board meeting tonight as a new teacher at Montevallo High School with head football coaching responsibilites. (Contributed)

By WESLEY HALLMAN / Sports Editor

Former University of Alabama quarterback Andrew Zow and current Corner High School head football coach Brent Smith are up for approval by the Shelby County Board of Education during a board meeting April 19 as new teachers with head football coaching responsibilities at Montevallo High School and Shelby County High School, respectively.

Zow was approved to replace Jamie Williams, who stepped down as the Bulldogs’ head coach and will transfer to Zow’s former position as a health teacher at Oak Mountain. Zow, who taught health classes at Oak Mountain, will replace Williams’ physical education teaching position at Montevallo and will serve as the school’s head football coach.

Zow compiled a record of 15-16 in his three seasons as the head football coach at Union County High School in Lake Butler, Fla., the school he starred at quarterback for before embarking on his collegiate playing career at Alabama.

Union County finished 8-3 in 2008, but failed to make the Florida High School Athletic Association region playoffs in his three-year span as the head coach.

Zow spent the past season as an assistant coach at Oak Mountain High School. Zow is also the president of Andrew Zow and Associates, a corporation that associates themselves with manufacturers and suppliers in the utility and automotive industries.

Smith led Corner to a 6-5 record and a spot in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 4A playoffs last season.

Smith, a McAdory High School and University of Alabama graduate, began his first head coaching position at Corner in 2005 and coached at the school for four years before spending two seasons as the head football coach and athletic director at Clay-Chalkville, an AHSAA Class 6A school. Smith returned to Corner as the school’s head coach in 2009.

Smith also served as an assistant coach at Tuscaloosa County, Midfield and Pinson Valley before becoming the head coach at Corner.

Smith was approved to replace Ryan Herring, who left Shelby County to become the head football coach at Lincoln last month, as a physical education teacher at Shelby County.