Longtime Vestavia Hills football coach Buddy Anderson is planning to retire at the end of the 2020 season.
Anderson told his players on Monday after the Rebels held their first workouts since the COVID-19 shutdown.
Anderson, who recently turned 70, is the winningest coach in Alabama high school football history with a record of 342-154. The 2020 season will be his 43rd season as head coach of the Rebels. He was hired as an assistant at Vestavia Hills in 1972, then was elevated to head coach in 1978.
Anderson led the Rebels to state championships in 1980 and 1998, both coming in the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s highest classification.
Anderson was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS) Hall of Fame in 2018 and is also a member of the AHSAA Hall of Fame. He received the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s Frank ‘Pig’ House Award in 2014 and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Herman L. “Bubba” Scott Award in 2016.
“Buddy Anderson is a man of faith and character who has been an important mentor to many others along the way,” AHSAA executive director Steve Savarese said when Anderson was inducted into the NFHS Hall of Fame. “He is a shining example of the kind of positive impact coaches have on the lives of the student-athletes they serve.”
– Rubin E. Grant
