The first time Derrick Williams lived in the Birmingham metro area, he was a ball-hawk guard for legendary Birmingham-Southern College coach Duane Reboul, who described him as “more nose guard than basketball guard.”

The second time was as an assistant and then head basketball coach at Minor High School.

The next time will begin around May 19 when he starts work as the new head boys basketball coach at Pleasant Grove. Williams was hired on May 4 to replace Jeremy Head. He comes to the Spartans after two years as head coach at Flagler Palm Coast High School, just north of Daytona Beach, Fla.

“I have pretty much grown up in my profession in Birmingham,” Williams said. “Much of my success has come in coaching in the Birmingham, Jefferson County area. Pleasant Grove was always one of the teams we competed against, and I know they have some great athletes.”

The 42-year-old coach said Pleasant Grove girls coach, Walter Hicks, reached out to him about applying for the job. Williams and Hicks worked together at Minor, Williams said.

Williams also said his wife – Shannon, an Adamsville native who works with Regions Bank – was interested in returning to the area to be closer to family with their 2-year-old daughter.

“The winning mentality they have created at Pleasant Grove with coach Hicks and the football team is one of the main things that drew me there,” Williams said.

At Minor, Williams coached 15 players who received college scholarships, he said. The Tigers advanced to five regionals when he was on staff, four as the head coach. “We were pretty successful at Minor,” he said. “We were able to win area championships and get to regionals. We were a staple down there at Wallace State (where the Northwest regionals are held), at least once every other year or so. We weren’t ever quite able to get over the hump.

“Back then, coaches like Anthony Grant (at Alabama) used to come through there. We had college coaches coming in to see our kids. It’s harder to get kids a chance these days with this transfer portal, unless they are 3- or 4- or 5-star kids.”

Williams will carry a 185-124 career record into his new position. His first head coaching role was at Minor (2010-2016), followed by a stop as head coach at Blount in 2017. He was an assistant coach at Austin in Decatur before working in Florida as an assistant and then head coach at Atlantic High in Port Orange and at Flagler beginning in 2021.

Williams, who was an All-State and Super 5 basketball performer and an honorable mention All-State football player at B.C. Rain in Mobile, said he was planning to accept a football scholarship at Alabama A&M before he was signed to play basketball at Lipscomb University by Scott Sanderson. He played two years at Lipscomb before transferring to Birmingham-Southern, where one of his teammates was now Samford head coach Bucky McMillan.

BSC coach Reboul’s influence is evident in Williams’ philosophy. “My teams have been defensively driven,” he said. “We press the ball 94 feet and try to cause a bunch of turnovers. I allow my guys to play with whatever God-given talent they have. We’re going to be disciplined on the defensive end and offensively, I’ll allow them to do whatever they are able to do.”