Joel Williams will enter his 45th year of coaching football this fall, and he’ll do it at what he believes will be his final stop.

Williams was approved Thursday night as the new head football coach at Class 5A Elberta High in Baldwin County.

“This is my last job,” Williams told AL.com. “I’m not going anywhere else and anyone who knows me knows I am nowhere close to retiring. I’m still a high energy guy, and I can’t wait to get in there and get started. I think we can build something special here.”

Williams replaces Nate McDaniel, who stepped down after five years as the Warriors head coach in April. He’s just the third football coach in the short history of the school following Greg Seibert and McDaniel.

“I’m just really excited,” Williams said. “I think there is a world of potential there. The facilities are unbelievable. I don’t know if there are better facilities anywhere in Baldwin County – the fieldhouse, the lockerroom, the stadium. They just opened the indoor area and weight room. We have a brand new principal in Dr. (Stan) Shotts. He is a young, energetic leader that I’m excited to work for.”

Williams, a native of Marietta, Ga., spent last fall as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Mississippi College. That school decided to discontinue the program after the 2024 season, and Williams was hired as offensive coordinator at Spanish Fort earlier this year.

However, McDaniel leaving Elberta opened another door for him.

“After Mississippi College folded its program, I knew I was coming back to Baldwin County,” he said. “I knew I was going to live in my condo at the beach in Gulf Shores. I also knew I would love to be a head coach in this county, and ultimately the good Lord opened this door for me.”

Few coaches have more experience on different levels of the sport than Williams. He coached for the Birmingham Fire of the World League of American football and has been an assistant at multiple colleges, including Delta State, the University of Mississippi, Samford, Birmingham Southern and, of course, Mississippi College.

He’s been a high school head coach in Alabama at T.R. Miller, UMS-Wright, Gadsden and Straughn and served as an assistant at Foley, Fairhope, Mountain Brook. He’s also coached at several high schools schools in Georgia and Florida.

“He obviously has experience at every level – high school, college, pro,” Shotts said. “He’s had success at every level. He’s been successful here in the county and knows people in the county and how to build a program. We are excited to get him in and see what he can do when he gets his hands on Elberta.”

The Warriors played a limited schedule in 2018 and 2019 under Seibert before joining the AHSAA full-time in 2020. The school has yet to have a winning season or make the playoffs, but Williams believes he might have three secrets to future success.

“No. 1 positive energy,” he said. “We are just not going to accept negativity in any form or fashion in our program. We are going to celebrate small triumphs and small victories. That’s my personality. I’m always charged up. No. 2, we are going to have fun. This is a tough game, and I think a lot of times we get carried away with the seriousness. That is not what we are going to do. This is America’s greatest game. Let’s have fun playing.

“No. 3 is the strength of the Warrior is the man next to me. In today’s game, especially in college and the pros, there is so much individualism and greediness. We are still on the purest level. This is high school football, and the most important person should not be yourself, but the guy next to you.”

Elberta competes in Class 5A, Region 1 with Vigor, Williamson, Citronelle, UMS-Wright, B.C. Rain, LeFlore and Faith Academy. Williams said one of the biggest keys for his team would be to do things differently than those other teams.

“One of the biggest things we have to do is do a tremendous job of getting outside the box schematically on what we do offensively, defensively and on special teams,” he said. “We are not going to do things like everyone else does. Our players will be a little different athletically. I’ve never been a guy married to the system. I always fit what we do to the people we have.

“We are going to be a football team that is really, really hard to prepare for because of the things we are doing. We want people to see us and think, ‘Oh my Lord, we have to get ready for this stuff in a week?’ A lot of time, that makes up for speed, size whatever case is.”

Williams will hit the ground running Friday.

He will meet individually with coaches in the morning followed by a team meeting at noon and a meet-and-greet from 1-3.