This is an opinion piece.

One of my favorite high school football coaches announced last week he was stepping down from his current job.

After nine years at St. Luke’s, Ronn Lee has turned the reigns of the Wildcats over to Joe Gilmore. Lee didn’t shut the door on another coaching job but said he honestly doesn’t know what is next for him right now.

My hope is he is still coaching somewhere in the area. He’s one of the best people I know, and I’m not just talking about coaches. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t a joy to be around him. His positivity is infectious.

Coach Lee took over St. Luke’s after a long tenure at Murphy and realized pretty quickly there were some differences.

“The biggest thing – and I learned it quick – was how we could practice at St. Luke’s,” he said this week. “When I was at Murphy and even Satsuma, we had what we called racehorse practices. I learned it from coach Rich Rodriguez. We practiced as fast and as hard as we could.

“I tried to implement that at St. Luke’s. After 20-30 minutes in our first practice, our players were completely gone. We were used to practicing with 100 or more players. Now, we were trying it with about 30. I called (former Faith Academy coach) Jack French because I knew he had success at smaller schools in Mississippi. He gave me a few tips, and it made it so we could at least practice for an hour and a half.”

Lee went on to win 42 games at St. Luke’s and reach the quarterfinals twice.

“The other thing I noticed at St. Luke’s was that 2A football on Friday nights is no different than Class 6A or 7A really,” he said. “When you get to the stadium, it’s about the game and those kids.”

Some of the true characters in the Mobile coaching community have stepped down this season, including French, Baker’s Steve Normand and Lee.

While I’m excited to work with the new coaches at those schools – Juan Johnson at Baker, Erik Speakman at Faith and Gilmore – and have already started building relationships with them, I hope we haven’t seen the last of French, Normand and Lee.

High school athletics needs people like those three.

Heck, I need people in my life like those three.

Special honor

My wife and I were invited to attend the Morgan County Leadership Hall of Fame on Thursday night in Decatur.

Our friend Michael “Soy” Taylor was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame. I am told he is the first person ever inducted who is not from Morgan County. However, God impacted a lot of people in Morgan County through Soy. It was a great honor for a great person. It was an honor for us just to attend and honor Soy’s life.

You may remember I wrote in this space in October that Soy was shot and killed in Guatemala last year. He and his family were serving there as missionaries. His wife, Deidra, and their three children went back to continue their work even after Soy’s death, showing faith and a courage I could only hope to display under those circumstances.

Through Soy Taylor, lives were changed in the name of the Kingdom. They are still being changed thanks to his family and many others. Appropriately in the Hall of Fame program, Soy was described as an international missionary, Navy veteran, compassionate servant and Christian Martyr. That last phrase is truly eye-opening.

To learn more about Soy and Deidra’s ministry, click this link https://shininglightabroad.com/

AHSAA Hall of Fame

Speaking of Halls of Fame, congratulations to the 12 coaches and administrators inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame earlier this week in Montgomery.

I’m blessed to serve on the Hall of Fame committee, and I can tell you it’s not an easy process to narrow down the list. There is no doubt these 12 are definitely worthy.

Congrats to: football coaches Rick Rhoades, Phillip Lolley and Perry Swindall; football and track coach Eddie Brundidge; basketball coaches Chucky Miller and Thomas “Mike” Boyd; baseball and football coach Ron Nelson; wrestling and football coach Dickey Wright; softball and baseball coach Chris Goodman; AHSAA administrator Kimberly Vickers; and selected from the “Old-Timers’ Division along were coach/administrators Frank “Swede” Kendall and Cornell “C.T.” Torrence, both are deceased.

Well deserved.

Prayers

Phillip Murphy, McGill-Toolen basketball coach: Made it through a 5.5 hour surgery Wednesday. His wife, Brandi, tells me his colon, small bowel and bladder were all entangled with diseased areas. Brandi said Thursday the coach was in a lot of pain, but everything is trending in the right direction. Praise God.

Praises

Steve Mask, Theodore football coach: Finished 31 days of radiation treatments last week after a cancerous nodule was found – and then removed — on his vocal cords. Coach Mask told me this week he can’t sing Elvis songs yet, but give him a week! He said doctors believe everything is fine moving forward.

Thought for the week

“Summoning the crowd, He told them, ‘Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth – this defiles a person.” – Matthew 15:10

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]. 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.