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Family, friends, promise brings Wallace to Linden

LINDEN &8212; Though he has coached all over the state and in Louisiana, Cecil Wallace said his move from Sweet Water High School, where he was the offensive line and blocking assignment coach, to Linden High School, where he will serve as the defensive coordinator, with new head coach Andro Williams was akin to a homecoming.

Wallace said he has both family ties to the community and knows most everyone through his 10 years coaching as teaching at Marengo Academy through the 90s. Though its isn&8217;t a long distant job change, Wallace said his decision to move from Sweet Water to Linden is largely to fulfill a promise to Williams, who was the defensive coordinator with him at Sweet Water.

I told him if he ever got a head coaching position I would go with him.&8221;

Williams did get a coaching position and Wallace lived up to his word and moved back to the town in which he had so much history. Wallace said the two came into a situation where players were eager to learn and where the players had the work ethic to make the changes to implement their system in a short period.

Of course, while Wallace is happy about the move and the work by his new team, he has nothing but good to say about the Sweet Water program and its coach Stacy Luker.

The resume

Wallace graduated from the University of Alabama in 1976 and took a defensive coordinator and offensive line coach position at Marengo Academy under coach Ritchie Herzog.

After Marengo Academy, Wallace followed Phillip Lolley, whom he befriended while Lolley coached at Demopolis High School, to Stevenson High School in the northeast corner of Alabama. After a year there, he moved down to Mobile where he served as the offensive-line coach and strength coach at Baker.

After three years there, he moved to a head coaching position at Camden, where he stayed for less than a year before moving to the head coaching position at Marengo Academy. He stayed at Marengo Academy for 10 years, though Wallace said he got a rough start the first season.

We finished the season and didn&8217;t lose another game. During the third week we lost to Morgan 34-7. We played them again in the playoffs and won, 13-0. They had 20 yards of offense and a running back on their team that averaged around 150 yards a game might have had 10 in the game.&8221;

During his last years at the Academy, Wallace went into administration and then moved to Meadow View Christian and then Lafore High School. He moved to Baton Rouge as a teacher at Capital Middle School and was dragged back into coaching when the school found he had previous experience.

Wallace moved back to Alabama with a head coaching position at Sumter Academy, where he was for a year before moving to Sweet Water.