This is an opinion piece.

Less than a month after the 2023 high school basketball season ended, there have been multiple coaching shakeups on the Gulf Coast.

As we reported last week, Amanda Niehoff stepped down at St. Paul’s to take over as head girls coach at Saraland.

As it turns out, the Spartans also will have a new boys coach.

Andy Ryan has stepped down from that program and, Thursday night, the school officially promoted assistant coach Dru Powell, a former head coach at Gulf Shores, Spanish Fort and Thompson.

“I think both hires are absolute home runs,” Saraland athletic director Jeff Kelly said.

RELATED: ASWA announces boys player of year finalists

Those weren’t the only moves in the area. On Friday, Jimbo Tolbert told AL.com that he was stepping down as Spanish Fort’s boys basketball coach to accept the same job at Gulf Shores. He will finish the year at Spanish Fort where he is currently the school’s golf coach as well.

“They called and reached out to see if maybe I would be interested in talking, which I was,” Tolbert said. “Each time we talked, the vision of the blueprint they already put into place became clearer and clearer. I decided I wanted to be a part of that and see if we can’t get that program to where it needs to be and where people want to see it.”

Tolbert spent the last five years as head coach at Spanish Fort. His team went 18-12 this season, losing at Blount in the Class 6A sub-regional round. During his tenure, he led the Toros to a pair of Elite 8 appearances and a Class 6A state championship game.

“Spanish Fort has been great,” he said. “It’s been an unbelievable ride from all the players and parents and their support and the past and present administrators. That has made the ride so much easier because you could just concentrate on basketball. It’s been awesome.”

RELATED: ASWA announces girls player of year finalists

Tolbert opened his coaching career at his alma mater, Montgomery Catholic. He coached the Knights for two years before joining his former Auburn coach Cliff Ellis at Coastal Carolina. He’s also been the head boys coach at UMS-Wright and Jackson. He replaces Todd Kimble at Gulf Shores.

“I think the program just needs some consistency,” Tolbert said of the Dolphins. “Somebody that is going to get down there and plant roots and be there and dedicate enough time to see the program through. The blueprint is in place. The ball is already rolling. I think my desire is just to go in and build camaraderie and consistency. They already play extremely hard.”

Ironically, Tolbert replaced Powell as Spanish Fort’s head coach when Powell took the head coaching job at Thompson. He returned to the Mobile area last year as a Saraland assistant, citing a need to be closer to family. He won 74 games in four years at Thompson and reached a pair of regionals. That followed seven years at Spanish Fort and two at Gulf Shores.

“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Powell said. “With the tradition Saraland has in academics and athletics it’s an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. It’s a great place to live and work and send your kids to school. My family loves it here. I’m real excited about the opportunity ahead of us.”

Kelly said the promotion of Powell following Ryan’s departure was almost a no-brainer.

“When we started to look around, I think we all knew based on our experience seeing coach Powell work and assist coach Ryan this year, the kind of man and leader he is,” Kelly said. “I’ve known Dru for a long time. I’ve seen him build successful programs over the years at Spanish Fort as well as the things he did at Thompson. He brings statewide credibility. We feel like he is one of the best coaches in the state, so when we began this process of looking for a new coach, we didn’t have to look very far.”

Powell and his wife Jenilee started the statewide “Shooting 2 Change” basketball event, which annually brings awareness to autism, after their son Parker was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

More basketball awards

AL.com will finish its annual basketball awards this weekend when the All-Tennessee Valley boys and girls teams are posted. That follows the Coastal Alabama and Birmingham teams this week.

That will just leave the Alabama Sports Writers Association Player of the Year and Mr. and Miss Basketball awards. That event will be held April 6 in Montgomery. Three finalists in each classification and in the AISA were announced earlier this week.

What will the McGill football team look like in 2023?

David Faulkner is settling into his role as McGill-Toolen’s head football coach.

The former Fairhope and Enterprise head coach was hired in January to replace Norman Joseph at the helm of the Yellow Jackets.

In an interview on “Inside High School Sports” on Mobile’s Sports Talk 99.5 FM this week, Faulkner talked about what the McGill offense and defense likely will look like in the fall.

“I think we will be a true 10 personnel, four open will be our base (four wide receivers, one back),” he said. “We obviously will try to play in some 11 personnel with a tight end. The main thing is to try the stretch the field vertically and horizontally and try to put as much stress on defenders as possible and push the ball down the field and play an aggressive, up-tempo style of football.

“Defensively, we will be some type of odd front probably with some even mixed in with our bandit, and we will just try to find a way to play our gaps and get the ballcarriers on the ground and get the quarterback on the ground on third-down situations.”

An up-tempo, spread attack obviously will depend on the right quarterback. A year ago, the Yellow Jackets played a pair of young QBs in Andrew Murchison and Aeden Shamburger.

“If you are going to be a true spread offense, you obviously have to have a quarterback who can distribute the ball and get it down field and get it out of his hands, so that will be something we try to figure out in the spring,” Faulkner said. “After we evaluate our personnel in the spring, we will either continue on with that or make whatever adjustments we need to make to be successful in the fall.

“We’ve got two guys who played a good bit last year. I think they are both capable. We just have to figure out which one does the best job in the spring and wins the job and tailor what we do in the fall to his abilities. I’m looking forward to the spring at that position because I think we have two guys who are definitely going to come in and compete for the spot and you just have to see how it goes.”

Faulkner said his team would start practice the first week of May. The Yellow Jackets will play Vigor in a spring game at the new Vigor on-campus stadium on May 20.

“For us, (spring training) is essential,” Faulkner said. “We need to go out and figure out who our team is going to be. We have a lot of kids back offensively, but defensively we will have a lot of new faces, so we need to figure out what that looks like and who our football players are going to be. We need to go out and put on the pads and block and tackle in the spring. It will be a key piece for us.”

Column hiatus

It’s been a few weeks since my last high school column.

I apologize to our loyal readers. I’m going to make it a point to get back on track and publish a column each Friday. I hope you will keep reading.

God Bless.

Thought for the week

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – Hebrews 12:1.

Ben Thomas is the high school sportswriter at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at [email protected]. His weekly column is posted each Friday on AL.com. He can be heard weekly on “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays.