Steve Mask is coming “home.”

After spending the last year as Pell City’s head football coach, Mask is returning to Mobile to become head coach at Class 6A Theodore. He met with the Bobcat staff on Wednesday and the team this afternoon.

“This is my home,” Mask told AL.com in his first interview since being hired by Theodore principal Tim Hardegree. “It was important to get back. I want to finish my career here, retire here. When this opportunity afforded itself, it was an opportunity I just felt I had to look into. Theodore is a great school with a great tradition. I’m thrilled to have the chance to lead this team.”

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The AHSAA Hall of Famer led Mobile’s St. Paul’s Episcopal to four state titles before stepping down following the 2021 season.

He replaces Eric Collier at Theodore. Collier resigned after a decade last month and is expected to join the off-the-field staff at the University of South Alabama. The Mask hire is pending formal approval by the MCPSS school board later this month.

“I want to thank Dr. (James) Martin and the Pell City administration for the opportunity they gave me and wish them well,” Mask said. “I really want to thank Tim and his administration at Theodore and the superintendent’s office for trusting me to come here. It’s obviously a great opportunity, and we are excited about it. I have nothing but respect for what Eric Collier has done here. I just hope to carry on that tradition and take it to the next level.”

Mask went just 1-9 in his only year at Pell City but has won 211 games in a 26-year head coaching career. He went 25-29 in five years at Bradshaw, 23-29 in five years at Buckhorn and 52-15 in five years at Colbert County.

His most successful tenure came at St. Paul’s where he won 110 games in 10 years with the Saints. He led the team to state titles in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020. At Theodore, Mask will be competing in the same region with his former school, the brutal Class 6A, Region 1.

“In all classifications, Mobile football is as good as anywhere in the state,” Mask said. “This particular region continues to produce state championships. When you have teams like Spanish Fort, Saraland, McGill-Toolen, St. Paul’s and Blount, it makes it tough. There are a lot of teams in this region that have played in the big dance, and that is where we want to go.”

Theodore just missed being there in 2022. In what turned out to be Collier’s final year as head coach, the Bobcats won their first 13 games before losing to eventual champion Saraland in the state semifinals.

“I think the key in this region is to stay healthy and bring it every Friday night and keep the kids fresh at the end of the year,” Mask said. “There are no off nights, and you have to approach it that way. You can’t look to the future to where you would like to be. You have to be focused on where your feet are at that time and, at the end of the year, count the games up and see where you are.”

St. Paul’s played in 5A in eight of Mask’s 10 years as head coach, but the team was elevated to 6A by the AHSAA’s competitive balance factor for two seasons (2018 and 2019). The Saints reached the playoffs both years. They returned to Class 5A in 2020 and won their fourth state title under Mask.

Mask will enter his 43rd year of coaching this fall. He said he’s ready to get started at Theodore immediately.

“We all have to get acclimated,” Mask said. “The staff and myself have got to put together a united front to show the kids we are here for them. We want the kids, the staff, the community to know we have a great thing going here and are here to make it even better.

“This is not a program that is down in anyway. That goes back to the work the previous staff put in. It would be foolish to blow it up. We are going to emphasize the strengths we can bring to the table and keep this thing rolling.”

Mask was inducted into the Alabama High School Hall of Fame in 2021. He is in his fourth decade as a football coach.