During DeMeco Ryans’ 10 seasons as an NFL middle linebacker and perennial team captain, it might have seemed the former Alabama All-American’s future as a coach was inevitable.

But the Pro Football Writers of America’s 2023 NFL Coach of the Year said he got hooked on coaching back home in Bessemer during the 2011 NFL lockout.

“My first coaching itch was Bessemer City High School,” Ryans said during an ESPN profile before his Houston Texans defeated the Dallas Cowboys 34-10 on Monday night. “Coach Dennis Alexander was the head coach at the time, one of my former teammates from the University of Alabama. These kids at Bessemer, they had been losing a lot, so they had a couple rough seasons, and I told Dennis, was like, ‘Hey, you mind if I coach? Can I help you out coaching?’ …

“I go home at night, and I’m drawing up a little playbook. I’m drawing up blitzes for this kid, that kid. It’s like I’m staying up. It’s like 11 at night, I’m still drawing.”

Ryans said he learned something from the high school players that he uses to coach in the NFL now.

“To see the elation, excitement on their faces,” Ryans said, “I was like, ‘Wow.’ And that was the hook. …

“I tell my guys, ‘Never forget how fun football is.’ And the hook that got me into coaching was the fun, the excitement that those kids showed, and that’s what I want our guys to have even on this level.”

Ryans was an All-State linebacker at Jess Lanier High School in 2001. Opened in 2010, Bessemer City replaced Jess Lanier as the community’s high school while retaining the Purple Tigers legacy.

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“Bessemer is really known for a lot, a lot, a lot of blue-collar people who really — they grind and they find a way to work,” Ryans said. “A lot of my coaches worked long shifts throughout the day, and they would still come out and take the time to coach us.”

Ryans went from Jess Lanier to Alabama, where he was a unanimous All-American, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the winner of the Lott IMPACT Trophy for the 2005 season as a senior. He capped his college career as the Defensive MVP of the 2006 Cotton Bowl in Alabama’s 13-10 victory over Texas Tech.

A second-round selection of the Texans in the 2006 NFL Draft, Ryans won the PFWA NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and was a two-time Pro Bowl selection for Houston.

Ryans returned to the Texans as their head coach last season after spending two years as the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator. Houston had won 11 games across the preceding three seasons, but the Texans went 10-7, captured the AFC South title and won a playoff game in Ryans’ first season as their coach.

Houston holds the top spot in the AFC South again this season with a 7-4 record and six games remaining on its schedule.

The Texans return to the field with a division game against the Tennessee Titans at noon CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.