New Northview football coach meets with team

LaBrian Stewart is one day into his new role as Northview’s new head football coach, but he apparently has already made a big splash with Cougar players.

Stewart, hired Monday night by the Dothan City School Board, was introduced to players, other athletes and Northview supporters Tuesday afternoon at the James Smith Convocation Center. He will also serve as athletic director at Northview.

Stewart comes to Northview after four years at Prattville, serving as offensive line coach the last three years. He was previously at Northview (2007) as an assistant coach and was head coach at Bullock County (2004-06) and assistant coach at Horeshoe Bend (2002) and his alma mater, Tallassee (2003) before that.

“I think he is a great guy,” junior linebacker Kaleb Easley said. “I think he will be able to come in here and produce here at Northview High School and that is to win football games. I think he will do great things here at Dothan.”

“I like him,” added junior quarterback Jalen Harris. “I think he will be a pretty good coach for us. He will push us to a new level.”

Stewart takes over a Cougar program that has only one winning season and only 30 wins in the last 12 years. Northview had 15 winning seasons in its first 22 years of existence, including state titles in 1981 and 1985.

“I am pretty excited about him coming in,” junior offensive lineman Grayson Medford said. “I think he will bring more energy to the school, some excitement to the football program and bring good things back to Northview.”

Though just hired Monday, Stewart actually met a majority of the players last week during the interview process.

Northview Principal Ron Snell said over 100 applicants sent resumes and that officials narrowed the list to 20 before he and Superintendent Tim Wilder cut the list to seven candidates.
The seven went through a “vigorous and thorough” interview with Wilder and Snell for more than two hours and then the two narrowed the list to two finalists.

The two finalists were then brought back to campus for interviews with players, boosters and parents.

“When he talked he was very inspirational,” junior defensive end/linebacker Antonio Glasco said of Stewart’s interview with players. “He came in confident. He was saying he already had our state rings already ordered. He is a winner.”

Easley said Stewart discussed his ideas and plans for what he wanted to accomplish at Northview and he “immediately got our respect.”

“The way he presented his ideas and what he wanted to do here at Northview High School stood out,” Easley said. “He also told us about how he wanted us to do our school work and be student-athletes.”

A couple of Cougar players already have had personal on-field instruction from the new head coach. That occurred during the summer at an offensive line camp when Stewart was one of the instructors. The players said he was impressive.

“I met him in summer camp and he is a good, hard-nosed coach,” junior offensive lineman James Tillman said. “He wanted the job to get done and he showed the way to do things.”

“It was fun,” added Medford. “He was strict and he made sure I was doing it right and the way it was supposed to be done. He was very disciplined.”
His interaction in interviews isn’t the only thing that has stood out to Cougar players.

His association with the winning program at Prattville wasn’t lost on players. The Lions won two state titles during Stewart’s four years and also finished as a state runner-up in another season

“He is a winner,” Glasco said. “That is what stands out to me. He already has two state championship rings.”

Prior to the interview process, Snell knew Stewart when the coach was an assistant with the Cougars in 2007-08. Those days along with dealing with Stewart in interviews has the NHS principal upbeat, too.

“He knows what it takes to win and he will bring the swagger to the football program,” Snell said to the crowd prior to introducing Stewart, drawing a loud round of applause from players, parents and others at Tuesday’s introduction ceremony.

With Stewart now in place, Cougar players were excited about the future.

“I am ready to get started,” Tillman said.

“I feel everybody is pumped up and excited,” Harris said.