Hal Riddle

Hal Riddle played quarterback at Hewitt-Trussville High School in the mid 1970s and received his degree from Montevallo. Riddle served as an assistant coach at his alma mater under Coach Jack Wood to begin his coaching career. After 18 years as an assistant football coach, most of them at Erwin, Hal Riddle landed the head coaching job at Erwin High School in 1993. He took over for Larry Farris, who moved over to Mortimer Jordan High School. His five teams at Erwin went a combined 39-20 making the playoffs his last three seasons at the school. In 1998 he took over the top position at Mortimer Jordan for one year finishing 6-3 before moving over to Clay-Chalkville in 1999. Riddle replaced the first football coach in Clay-Chalkvilles history, Toney Pugh, before the 1999 season. In his first season, Riddle led the Cougars to a 12-3 record and a Class 6A State Championship, beating Robert E. Lee of Montgomery 30-27 in overtime. The Cougars dipped to 7-5 and 7-4 the next two seasons, but made the playoffs both years. In 2002 Coach Riddle returned home to Hewitt-Trussville as the head coach. Since that last move his success at Hewitt-Trussville has been consistent. All but two of his teams have made the playoffs and most have finished with winning records. His overall coaching record stands at 150-90 in 21 seasons as a head football coach. Coach Riddle was named as the 6A Coach of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association in 1999.