Close to home: New Berrien coach has ties to community

Published 5:26 pm Friday, June 1, 2018

VALDOSTA – Tim Alligood was named as the new head football coach at Berrien High School in January 2018. Since then, his ties to the Berrien community have given him an advantage in his first few months on the job.

When Berrien athletic director Doug Nix began the search for the school’s new football coach after the 2017 season, he desired one quality above all others.

It wasn’t strategy or charisma or even leadership. More than anything, Nix wanted a coach that would be in the Berrien community for the long haul.

“That’s been one of the things at Berrien, just we’ve had a lot of coaches,” Nix said. “We were looking for somebody that we felt like this wouldn’t be a stepping stone, this was a place that they wanted to put down roots.”

While he had to go to another school to hire Berrien’s next head coach, Nix didn’t have to venture outside of his own town to make the hire.

Alligood has coached high school football in South Georgia for more than a decade, even serving a stint as Berrien’s defensive coordinator under Ed Pilcher from 2013-15. He credits Lowndes coach Randy McPherson for “cutting his teeth” when he was on staff as a community coach in the early 2000s, as well as other head coaches he’s worked under such as Richie Marsh at Thomasville High School and Jason Strickland at Fitzgerald High School.

“I feel like I’ve been very fortunate to work for some guys that knew what they were doing, very successful, and then just being able to see it done the right way,” Alligood said.

When Alligood took over as the defensive coordinator before the 2013 season, he and his family built a house in the community. However, Pilcher stepped down for health reasons in May 2016 and Alligood took a job coaching linebackers at Coffee County High School.

But while his place of employment changed, his home stayed the same. Alligood and his family continued to live in Berrien County, with Alligood making the roughly 45-minute commute every day to Coffee County.

“The school system is so great for our kids, and like I said with us being in the community six years, we’ve established relationships with people,” Alligood said. “It’s just been a good fit for our family.”

The community ties didn’t make Alligood a clear-cut favorite in the coaching search from the beginning, but Nix said he and the search committee viewed him as one of the top candidates for the job. Nix said they wanted a coach that would be a part of the community outside of just the team, including being involved in the booster clubs and youth football.

Nix also said this was an important hire due to all the upgrades being made at Berrien. With a new football facility and a new field house on the horizon, a coach that will stick around and be a part of the program and community for years to come was essential.

“We could put checks for all those for him,” Nix said.

Alligood takes over a Berrien program that posted a 4-7 record in 2017, losing in the first round of the Class AA state playoffs. The Rebels haven’t won a playoff game since 1991, but they did make the postseason in 2014 when Alligood was the defensive coordinator. 

So far, Alligood has embraced the head job at Berrien. He said he and his family have always enjoyed the small-town feel of the community, seeing many of the same people as they go about their daily lives outside of football.

Those relationships Alligood has built have already started to pay dividends for his program as well.

“We were needing some on-the-field equipment this offseason and we went around asking some of the businesses, ‘Hey, can y’all help us out with this with donations?’” Alligood said. “They stepped up to the plate and we were able to get all of it. That was very encouraging.”

Alligood has yet to coach his first game as Berrien’s head coach, and it’s unknown how his teams will fare with him at the helm. But in his first several months on the job, his ties to the Berrien community have already given him an advantage.

“They know where you’re coming from, you’ve kind of got that trust already built in with some people,” Alligood said. “I think that’s something that can’t be replaced, that’s for sure.”