#HSFT18: Stop No. 26 – Pickens County Tornadoes

*District games

REFORM, AL. (WCBI) — A new head football coach takes over at Pickens County.

Pickens County native, former Alabama national champ, and NFL standout Michael Williams returns home to take over as the new head coach of the Tornadoes football program.

“For the board of education and school to have pride in me,” said new coach Michael Williams. “And have the trust in me to be able to coach these boys up and teach them life lessons. I felt like that was a big thing for me.”

Williams replaces former head coach James Thompson who left to take over at Carver Montgomery.

The team says that coach Williams will fit right in where he first started.

“I feel that he’s going to be a great fit for us,” said senior lineman Xyron Giles. “And just him being from the community already got us more respect for him, and I think we are going to do big things this year.”

“We’ve got a good coach,” adds teammate Jacaurian Washington. “We got a good person ahead of us. A good leader. We’ve got to do what he says to do, and get done what we’ve got to get done.”

The Tornadoes have made back to back state 1a state championship games, but have come up short.

The team knows they’ve got to get back and finish the job.

“With failure the past two years,” Giles said. “It had us more motivated this year to even win it, and get there to get our rings this year. It’s more competitive with this team. Family oriented. I feel we are going to be great this year.”

“Just pushing everybody to be great,” adds junior lineman Jahmarien Latham. “Not let nobody slack off. Trying to teach them how to feel each others shoes of the people that left.”

For new coach Michael Williams, he knows that there is no question what this team’s goals and expectations are for this year.

“Goals is not question a state championship,” Williams said. “It’s you’ve been to back to back state championships. That goal has to be to win. It’s just taken the little steps to get to that point. We are at the first step. We’ve got a lot of steps to go. It’s a mountain. It’s a mountain you’ve got to climb.”

Pickens County will open the season at home August 24th against Marengo.