Enterprise’s Malcolm Colbert resigns

After building the Enterprise girls soccer team into an area powerhouse, the only coach the program has ever known has decided it’s time to step away.

Malcolm Colbert, who was asked to lead the girls soccer program when it was formed in 2000, made it official earlier this week when he announced at the team’s banquet this was his final one as the head coach.

He led the team to three Class 6A Final Four appearances (2004, 2007 and 2008), and believed this year’s team could have been among his most talented.

But things didn’t turn out quite as planned for the team, or Colbert.

The Lady Wildcats did have an impressive 17-5 record and won the region title once again, but a first-round home playoff loss to Prattville brought the season to a screeching halt.

And for Colbert, it was a season in which he missed the final six games of the year while battling a blood infection in which he was hospitalized.

Tom McDermott, the boys coach, took over the girls to finish the remainder of the season.

“When this illness hit me, it was like cold water on me,” Colbert said. “The doctor said he didn’t want me in the sunlight for a certain amount of time because
of the medication.

“So I decided not to get involved (in coaching the rest of the year). I told the kids at the beginning of the season I was going to retire.

“But to not be able to finish — that hurt.”

Colbert was an instructor pilot in the United States Army, retiring from the military after 21 years of service before coming to Enterprise. He will continue to
teach at the school.

“I didn’t play as a kid — I was a football player,” Colbert said. “But when my boy got old enough to play (soccer), I coached the kids in the military.

“Once I got here, I didn’t do anything with soccer until 2000 when I was asked by the vice principal if I knew anything about soccer.”

Colbert is proud of what’s been accomplished.

“The first season I had three real soccer players and everyone else just wanted to be part of the team,” Colbert said. “The second season we made the playoffs
for the first time and got skunked by Tuscaloosa-Central, 9-0. That was a real lesson for us.”

The Wildcats built off that loss, and became the team to beat in the Wiregrass.