Four-time AHSAA basketball state champion coach Robi Coker is leaving his job as boys head coach at Fort Payne High School to return to the college coaching ranks. Coker will join Bill Armstrong’s first staff at McNeese State in Lake Charles, La.

Coker told his players his decision Monday morning and spent a final basketball banquet with the Wildcats on Monday night.

“It went great,” Coker said. “There was some sadness, but it’s always good to feel you’re wanted. Nobody was mad and they were all very supportive. We had a great 24 months.”

Coker led Plainview’s boys to four Class 3A state titles, winning back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019 and again in 2022 and 2023. The 43-year-old Crossville High School and Jacksonville State alumnus compiled a 334-95 career record in 13 years, starting with one season at Clay-Chalkville. He spent 10 years at Plainview and two at Fort Payne.

The Wildcats were 46-13 under Coker with losses in sub-regional play both seasons. He went 274-66 at Plainview with three trips to the final four and two Elite Eight finishes. Coker averaged 25.7 wins per season as a head coach with losing seasons in his one season at Clay-Chalkville (14-16) and in his debut at Plainview in Rainsville (10-15). In his final nine years at Plainview, Coker’s teams won at least 30 games five times and they won at least 26 in every season he was there except for the first two.

“At Plainview, we had a group of men who bought in to working hard, putting the team first and who didn’t care who got the credit,” Coker said. “They figured out how to get it done. The culture was contagious and we got it rolling. It got to be the standard. It was fun to be a part of it.”

Before taking the Clay-Chalkville job, Coker worked for five years for current UAB head coach Andy Kennedy, where he and Armstrong served as assistant coaches at Ole Miss.

“Coach Armstrong and I have been friends for over 20 years,” Coker said. “We shared a great friend in (the late) Torrey Ward, who was an assistant at Jacksonville State when I was in school there and was Bill’s college roommate. To be on his inaugural staff was an opportunity I couldn’t imagine not being part of it.”

Armstrong, a 2001 graduate of UAB, was team captain for the Blazers under Murray Bartow – who had Kennedy as an assistant. He worked three years as an assistant at Birmingham-Southern College for Duane Reboul, 11 years at Ole Miss and two years as associate head coach at LSU for Will Wade. When Wade left McNeese for North Carolina State, Armstrong was hired from his position as assistant to Scott Drew at Baylor.

Coker and his wife, Melissa, have three children: 13-year-old Lily Kate, 11-year-old Rob and 4-year-old Addie Ruth.

“We are deeply invested in this community,” he said. “We’ve had a blast over the last 24 months. There were some tears around the Coker house, but we’re spinning it as a positive. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve developed lasting relationships. The more we move, the more friends we make. We’re looking forward to investing in that community.

“One of my favorite things about coaching is the people. People I was with for just a year have been sending me congratulation texts today.”

Coker said he would head to Lake Charles on Sunday. “They will all be going to the Final Four on Wednesday and I’ve got some loose ends to tie up,” he said. “I will spend some time with my family and drive down Sunday night.”