Dothan High School hires basketball, baseball coach

Dothan High filled two high-profile coaching vacancies on Monday when Bill Porter Jr. was hired as the school’s boys basketball coach and Matthew McDonald was chosen as the baseball coach.

Earlier this year, Kelvis White was selected as the new football coach and athletics director. The hires signal a new era of leadership for the Tigers’ boys sports program.

Porter has spent the past two seasons as the head basketball coach at Headland, while McDonald will be taking on his first head coaching role after serving as an assistant for the past three years at state power Russell County.

Porter replaces Terry Goodson, who left the Tigers this summer to return to his alma mater of Ariton as its head coach. McDonald takes over for Dirk Williams, who was dismissed from his head baseball coach duties following the season.

Porter led Headland to a 23-11 record last season as the Rams were the area and Wiregrass Athletic Conference champions. He was named the WAC Coach of the Year.

Porter, 36, has longtime ties to Dothan principal Andrew Sewell and his family. Porter played for Sewell’s father, A.A. Sewell, at Selma High School.

“Actually, I still run two or three set plays I got from coach Sewell,” Porter said. “I love him to death. I’ve known Andrew and his twin brother Anthony practically my entire life.”

Porter said when the opportunity to work with Andrew Sewell at Dothan opened up, he was excited about the possibilities.

“I was happy at Headland and it was a difficult decision. I love the town and the kids,” Porter said. “But it was a 6A opportunity and it was Dothan High. I’m excited.”

Before coming to Headland, Porter coached at Dallas County, which won the area title in 2004. He led Wilcox Academy to the AISA Final Four in 1999 during his first job as a head coach. Porter also spent several years as an assistant at Selma High.

He has a 103-88 record as a head coach.

While Dothan graduated seven seniors from last year’s team which reached the South Regional, Porter believes the nucleus is present for another competitive team.

“It’s totally opposite of when I first got to Headland,” Porter said. “They had been to the Final Four, but nine seniors were on that team. I had only eight guys on the team the first year.”

McDonald is a graduate of Baldwin County High School and played two years of junior college baseball at Faulkner State before graduating from Auburn in 2003. He spent one season as an assistant at Robertsdale before taking a job at Russell County, one of the most respected Class 6A baseball programs in the state under head coach Tony Rasmus.

McDonald says changing the mindset of a Dothan program, which has struggled in recent years, would be the first goal.

“I want to develop a work ethic,” McDonald said. “We’re going to work hard and play extremely hard. ‘Can’t’ won’t be in the vocabulary.”
McDonald, 30, believes being tutored by Rasmus has him ready for his first head coach job.

“He’s given me the blueprint that I want to use in Dothan,” McDonald said. “After talking to coach Rasmus about this job, he told me I was ready.”

McDonald said Russell County assistant Roy Dixon, a former Wallace College player, encouraged him to go after the Dothan job.
“He just raved about how nice of a town Dothan was,” McDonald said. “After visiting a few times, I really liked it and I’m very excited about getting the job.”

McDonald said he longed to be a coach.

“Every kid wanted to be a pro baseball player,” McDonald said. “During my junior and senior years, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do that. I decided I wanted to be a history teacher and a coach.”

McDonald will teach history at Dothan along with his coaching duties.