Boaz hires Luke Pruitt as new head football coach

Luke Pruitt has been doing his homework on the Boaz football program.

Thursday morning, Pirate players stopped to introduce themselves to Pruitt in the hallway outside the boardroom of the Boaz City School System’s central office. As they did, Pruitt told several of them their jersey numbers and what positions they play.

Just minutes later, the Boaz City Board of Education approved Pruitt’s hiring as the 22nd head football coach in program history. He succeeds Jeremy Sullivan, who stepped down after eight seasons to become head coach at Jacksonville High School.

Pruitt, 41, was accompanied to the board meeting by his wife, Laura, and their four children — sons John Cooper (sixth grade), Hudson (fifth grade) and Spencer (first grade) and daughter Charlsie (kindergarten).

Pruitt’s contract as a teacher and coach for Boaz started on Friday.

He comes to Boaz following a successful seven-year stint at Pisgah. The last four seasons, his Eagle teams won 41 games, including eight state playoff victories, while being ranked in the ASWA rankings for 36 consecutive weeks.

Pruitt guided the Eagles to the semifinals of the Class 2A state playoffs in 2022 and 2023. His 2024 squad won the Region 7 championship and lost in the state quarterfinals. Pisgah also won a region title in 2021.

He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville State in 2006. He spent one year as an assistant at Hoover, helping the Bucs reach the state championship game.

Following his time at Hoover, he served seven years as the offensive coordinator at Plainview for his father, Dale. The Bears reached the postseason six times, winning the region championship in 2014.

Luke followed his father to Albertville in 2015. He served three years as the Aggies’ defensive coordinator, helping them reach the state playoffs in 2015 and 2016.

“I want to thank the previous administration and Coach [Jamie] Darwin and the Pisgah community, because they loved our family while we were there,” Pruitt said.”

Darwin is principal of Pisgah High School.

“The job came open and there was some interest, and I came and checked out the facilities,” Pruitt said of Boaz. “I knew Coach [Josh] Walker. He and Dr. [Todd] Haynie showed me the vision for where they’d like the sports programs to be, and Boaz has a tradition in their sports programs that the community is very supportive, and that’s something that drew us to here.”

Haynie is superintendent of the Boaz City Schools. Walker serves as assistant principal and athletic director at BHS.

“Coach Sullivan has done a phenomenal job,” Pruitt said. “It’s a totally different scenario than when I first went to Pisgah. It was a rebuild, and that’s not the case here.

“It’s something that my wife and I prayed about, and we felt like the Lord was leading us here for a reason.”

Spring football

The AHSAA allows a set number of hours for organized team activities in the spring, and Pruitt said the Pirates will utilize those instead of conducting traditional spring practice.

Teams who don’t conduct spring practice are allowed to start preseason practice a week early. The Pirates will kick off fall camp on Monday, July 28.

The first game of the Pruitt era will be Friday, Aug. 22, at Madison County.

“We’re going to meet the kids and get in the hallways and meet the teachers, and see if there are any who aren’t playing right now that we need to get out,” Pruitt said. “We will meet the guys and kind of lay the foundation for what I want for the program. We’re not changing everything because it doesn’t need to be changed, because it’s not broken.”

Sharing a vision for the program

Pruitt believes that building a successful football program begins at the peewee level and rises through the middle school and high school levels.

“At some point, I’m going to get involved with the peewee program and start there and have my hands in that,” Pruitt said. “From top to bottom, my hand’s going to be in the program and installing everything we want to do to be successful.”

For the varsity program, Pruitt’s goal is to maintain a consistent level of success and always be competing for championships.

“You always want to host a home playoff game, you want to win the region, you want to beat your rivals … but you also want to win a state championship, that’s the ultimate goal, and get the program to where it’s year after year,” he said.

“It’s not this grade here or this group there, it’s year after year that it’s a continual success, and that’s something we want to get started from the littles all the way up.

“I want the alumni, the football lettermen, to come back and pour back into the kids and make it a brotherhood that you’re always a part of once you leave here.”