NEW BEGINNINGS

BRHS Head Coach Aubrey Blackwell introduces new routines and defines what leadership looks like for athletes

STORY BY BRITTANY SMITH & PHOTOS BY JAKE ARTHUR & ANDY ANDERS

Passion and dedication dictate who you are.

“In everything we do, we must have passion, energy and accountability,” said Aubrey Blackwell, the head football coach at Benjamin Russell High School. “Every day when we work, we must outwork our opponents and our minds.”

Blackwell came to BRHS to coach football in the spring of 2021 and is a proponent for empowerment and growth, both on and off the field. He works daily to instill leadership capabilities in the team and will not settle for anything less.

Blackwell’s love for coaching began when he suffered a season-ending injury his senior year in high school, moving him from quarterback to wingback and tight-end. Then, during the playoffs, Blackwell reinjured his shoulder. But his love for the game was so strong, his coaches moved him to the box to help with spotting and charting offensively. Standing in that box, reading plays and assisting to call shots, is where Blackwell fell in love with the game.

Q:1 – Why did you decide to become a coach?

A: I was very fortunate as a young man to have some very influential people in my life who were coaches.

The first real, impactful person in my life was Marc MacDonald, my seventh and eighth-grade coach at George Washington Junior High in Montgomery. He was the first person in athletics that demanded that I give my best. He never let me make excuses and never allowed me to show my opponent any weakness. He gave me so much confidence and laid a

foundation of toughness in me. When I moved on to high school, my head football coach at Robert E. Lee was Jimmy Perry, who was, and still is, my mentor. During my sophomore year, Coach Perry almost passed away from total kidney failure the week of our playoffs; yet, he did not miss a practice or a game. I remember how sick he was when he got back on the bus, and the very next day, his brother gave him a new kidney. That showed me right away the depth of love a coach can have for his players. I went on to play college baseball for four different head baseball coaches in four years. All four men were completely different. I signed here at Central Alabama Community College to play for the legend, as Ronnie Baynes and my teammates still call him. He was persistent and demanding but a lot of fun. He allowed us to grow within ourselves, giving us the best stories and life lessons along the way. Then, after a third-place World Series finish that year, he moved to New York City to the NFL Preparation is Key Blackwell has introduced new, intense problem headquarters to run all league officials. solving exercises at practices and in life; Facing My second-year head coach Page: Blackwell said his career goals was Don Ingram. An ex-drill have always been to coach at a high level sergeant in the military, Coach in a town that shuts down on Friday nights Ingram had me in the best to support their team. He found that support at BRHS. shape of my life. But the most important thing that he taught me was never to be satisfied. We were around 12-0 or 13-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country in the NJCAA, and we went to play Gadsden Community College in a mid-week game. Unfortunately, we lost 4-3, our first loss of the season.

The next day, Coach Ingram ran us and ran us and ran us. Multiple times as a team, we pushed his black Nissan truck around the loop at the college for hours. As a sophomore baseball player on the No. 1 team in the country, it never made sense at the time. But he would constantly say, “Your win-loss record doesn’t define you. Your effort and performance day-to-day is what defines you.”

Now, that’s easy to say to a team that is 0-12 who’s not talented, but they try hard; however, it meant so much more because we were really good. Ingram believed that we should have won every game, and he was probably right. We missed out on the College World Series by one game, finishing that season 49-9. He taught me that it’s never the scoreboard or the record but your passion and dedication that dictate who you are.

In my third season, I transferred to Montevallo, where I played for Bob Riesner. His style was much different. I learned a lot that season, mostly how a coach’s philosophy must adapt to the team’s personality for the best outcomes and chemistry.

My fourth year came Greg Goff, who was coming off a run in the SEC at Kentucky and a retiring legend in Keith Madison. My senior year was Coach Goff’s first head coaching job, and with him, I learned the most.

I stayed on staff with him after completing my senior year through grad school, and he gave me my first coaching job.

Goff was 100 percent detail-oriented. He drilled in me the importance of organization, community communication, fundraising, preparation, professionalism and development. Goff also gave me many responsibilities that a head coach normally had, which allowed me to grow quickly in my profession. He instilled in me the ability to be ready for my head coaching job at Montgomery Catholic, even though I had only coached football for five years.

Ultimately, the life-changing impact of every coach in my life has led to me knowing that I wanted to make an impact in this world, that the only true way to live a life worth living would be to coach and help raise young men. I struggled between coaching and going into the ministry. I even met with my pastor my senior year for a few weeks, and he was the one that reassured me that coaching was going to be my ministry, not inside the walls of a church but rather in the field.

Q:2 – What are some of the philosophical approaches you’ve brought to BRHS?

A: Our style of lifting has changed significantly, and that is based on my style of play.

Down, Set, Hike!

Under Blackwell's watch, practices at BRHS are all about competition.

We train in the weight room like we play, relentless and fast. That’s how we are going to play the game of football, so that’s how we are going to lift.

If you walk into our weight room on any day, you’ll see no one standing still, resting or with bad body language. That is by design.

Also, if you’re there long enough, you’ll see someone hold their teammate accountable for their reps or effort or technique. I want to grow leaders, and leaders can’t develop if they do not practice leading. So, I want to create an environment where that can happen.

I can help young people learn the right and wrong ways to develop their characters and leadership styles. I want to empower our boys to grow. I do not want a bunch of followers. I want warriors and teammates.

Working together to problemsolve and compete is another significant part of what is currently happening here in our program. We find a way to compete for as much as we can. For example, we create mini-teams with a captain and co-captain, much like the philosophies I have studied and read about in many Navy Seal Boat Team books and articles.

I want to create challenging situations where the boys have to compete and solve problems, all working together through those circumstances. On the field, offensively, we will find the best ways possible for our boys to play fast and physically. Defensively, our words are relentless and consistent. We will take pride in our special teams daily and not allow that phase of our game ever to lose focus.

Blackwell brings a wealth of knowledge, skill and determination to BRHS and looks forward to starting the 2021 football season at home on Aug. 20, with Huffman at the MartinSavarese Stadium.

IT’S TIME FOR OUTDOOR FUN, IS YOUR HEART HEALTHY?

It’s time for outdoor fun, and you don’t want to miss a single moment in the sun.

Make sure your heart is healthy and ready for the season with an appointment at the UAB Heart & Vascular Clinic at Russell Medical.

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HEART & VASCULAR CLINIC AT RUSSELL MEDICAL

Make an appointment today by calling (256) 234-2644. 3368 Highway 280, Suite 130 • Alexander City, AL 35010 uabmedicine.org/HeartRussell