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DHS loses basketball coach to Pickens County
Published 5:31pm Wednesday, June 8, 2011By Jeremy D. Smith
jsmith@demopolistimes.com
Demopolis head basketball and assistant football coach Patrick Plott tendered his resignation Wednesday, hours after being named the head football and basketball coach at Pickens County.
“It was big,” Plott, who is a graduate of Carrollton High School, said of receiving the Pickens County offer. “Being close to home was one of the reasons I took the job, being with good people who know me and people I know.”
“It’s always a good thing to see coaches go get jobs that are going to be better for them and their families,” Demopolis High School head football coach and athletic director Tom Causey said. “He was a positive influence on our kids and a positive influence on our community. I think he will be really successful wherever he goes.”
The move comes approximately two weeks after the Demopolis City Schools Board of Education voted to name him the next head coach of its varsity high school basketball team. Plott, who also served as a defensive backs coach for the DHS football team, was to replace Jesse Bell, who had been the basketball coach since 1998. The system will now seek someone to head up its basketball program.
“We’re looking for the best possible candidate we can get with head coaching experience in basketball,” Causey said of the newly-created vacancy. “Anything else they can coach will be a bonus. We’re wanting to hire the best possible candidate we can for our basketball program.”
Plott steps into a position in which he will be tasked with continuing the perennial success of Pickens County football and basketball.
“I don’t feel any pressure. I’m just going to go out and coach the kids and lead them, build on what they started here,” Plott said.
Plott began his coaching career at Carrollton. He also coached at Aliceville, Pell City and Bullock County before spending one year in Demopolis.
“I really loved coaching and working in Demopolis,” Plott said. “Being under Coach Causey, I learned so much from him and the staff.”
With the recent cuts of 22 teachers/staff and 18 reassignments, wouldn’t it make more sense to hire someone already on staff? The school system cut shop, choir, the art teacher at the high school, and quite a few other teachers, but we’re going to hire another coach? How many coaches are on staff already? Looks like the priorities that made DHS and our system a blue ribbon school are gone.