By Staff
Kim West
Phil Campbell baseball coach and math teacher Michael Beck was hired Monday by the Colbert County Board of Education to fill the athletic director vacancy at Deshler High School, a Class 4A school in Tuscumbia.
Deshler plays 5A Russellville in football and baseball but doesn't normally compete against Franklin County schools, including 2A Phil Campbell.
Beck, who has coached football, basketball and baseball during his 11-year tenure at Phil Campbell, will also teach high school math at Deshler.
"I felt like it was a good time to make a move, and I'm really excited about being an AD," said Beck, who has a master's degree in education administration from South Alabama and a physical education and math degree from the University of North Alabama. "When I didn't win the (Franklin County) superintendent's race, people asked me if Deshler was going to hire me as the new baseball coach. At one time I thought I might get both the baseball job and athletic director, but the school board didn't want the AD to be a coach."
John Mothershed was athletic director/football coach for 13 years at Deshler before the school board split the positions in March. The board also approved Monday the hiring of Speake baseball coach Josh LouAllen as the head baseball coach and science teacher at Deshler. LouAllen replaces fourth-year coach Jae Lockett, who was removed last month.
Beck said the most difficult part of his decision was giving up coaching duties, but he looks forward to spending more time with his family.
"The position is a mystery to me because I've never been an AD before," Beck said. "As a coach, I like to be involved with the kids so it will be hard if I won't get to be around them as much.
"But in my mind, my two little girls are never going to play baseball, and Deshler is a place where they'll have the chance to have academic success and compete for a state title one day. I will get to spend more time with my girls, including my wife, as an AD than as a coach."
Beck, who won more than 200 games as Phil Campbell's baseball coach, is best known for guiding the Bobcats to the playoffs seven times in the past eight seasons and two appearances in the state championship game in 2005 and 2006.
Last season, the eighth-ranked Bobcats (25-13) won the Franklin County tournament and advanced to the state quarterfinals for the second straight season.
"I knew this season might be my last year at Phil Campbell because my little girl was going into the seventh grade," Beck said. "I had as much fun with this group of kids as I ever had as a coach. We didn't have a lot of major league talent but we had a lot of players who knew how to win – some way, somehow we pulled together and got it done."