Wayne Grant

Wayne Grant was a star football player at Zion Chapel High School in southwest Alabama. After graduation, he played football at Troy State. Coach Grant began as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Zion Chapel for one season in 1976 and at Louisville in 1977. In 1978 he accepted the head football coaching position at Lowndes Academy where he stayed for one season with a 6-4 record. Grant worked as a graduate assistant at Troy University in 1979 before moving over to Pike County High School as an assistant football coach for two years before being elevated to head coach in 1982. His ten seasons at Pike County produced two State Championships in 1988 and 1989. His teams made the playoffs seven times and won six region titles. In 1992 Coach Grant took the head coaching position at Talladega High School where he remained for six seasons. His first four teams qualified for the state playoffs. Coach Grant spent the 1998 season as an assistant coach at Goshen before returning to Pike County in 1999 for another run of nine seasons. His teams won another three Class 3A State Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2006. They also won five region titles and qualified for the playoffs in each season after his first year back at the school. Overall, he directed Pike County teams for 19 years and had a 185-59 record. Grant returned to the AISA in 2008 as an assistant coach at Pike Liberal Arts. He was part of a sixth state title team in 2009 at Pike Liberal Arts with Coach Kilcrease when the Patriots won the AISA Class 3A crown. Grant, a science teacher at Pike Lib, dropped out of coaching in 2010, but returned in 2011 season upon Kilcreases request after the third week when another assistant coach left. In 2012, he took over the head coaching duties at Pike Liberal Arts for one season before moving on to Crenshaw Christian in 2018. His overall coaching record stands at 264-123 with a playoff record of 53-18 which ranks among the best in the state. His teams won six State Championships and fourteen region titles during his tenure in Alabama. He was named as the Coach of the Year three times (1984, 2005, 2006) by the Alabama Sports Writers Association.