Cris Bell has faced challenging coaching jobs before and succeeded.

That’s why he’s not intimidated at all with his newest job.

Bell was officially approved Thursday night as the new head football coach at Robertsdale High School. The Golden Bears have lost 24 straight games entering the 2024 season.

“Tough jobs have always intrigued me,” Bell told AL.com on Thursday. “We are excited about it. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to take an awful lot of work. They all do. I know there have been some good football coaches in this seat who, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out or they moved on.

“For me, this is one of those deals where, at this point, my next move is either to the cemetery or the nursing home. We are going to make this work. It’s a burn-the-ships mentality. We are here to stay, and we are going to get after them one day at a time and take care of the little things and not compromise on anything.”

Bell, who stepped down as head coach at Scottsboro after three years in January, replaces Kyle Stanford at Robertsdale. Stanford resigned late in the 2023 season but has stayed on as athletic director.

Robertsdale has gone 0-10 each of the last two seasons. The Golden Bears’ last win was a 24-10 victory over Satsuma on Sept. 24, 2021. They haven’t reached the playoffs since 2004 and haven’t had a winning season since 2001.

“It’s not going to be a quick fix. I know that,” Bell said. “It’s going to take a lot of work. It will get worse before it gets better, but we are going to be faithful. I am not going anywhere, and we are going to see this thing through.”

A Virginia native, Bell has coached in his home state as well as Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois and Alabama. In 2012, he took over an Oak Mountain program had had gone 8-22 over its three previous seasons. He led that team to 47 victories – including a 10-win season in 2014 – and four playoff appearances.

In 2021, Bell took over a Scottsboro program that had endured two losing seasons in the previous three years, including a 2-8 record in the COVID year of 2020. He went 18-15 with the Wildcats, leading the team to the postseason in both 2022 and 2023. He said every rebuilding job is a little different.

“The consistent thing you have to do is identify what has been wrong,” Bell said. “The common theme in most jobs like this is there maybe hasn’t been a focus on little things. Maybe the accountability has been lax. You have to be patient and stubborn and intentional in how you go about things.

“There will be some down swings, but as you are working through it you can’t lose sight of the plan and, when it gets bad, you can’t lose your guts whether it takes one month, three months or five years. We are going to make progress even if it might not be super tangible at times, but we are going to celebrate that process and start to build a positive mindset. It’s not complicated, but it’s not easy.”

Bell has traditionally been an option-oriented coach, but he said he will use whichever scheme best suits his players.

“I love the option,” he said. “I think it gives you advantages on the field when you don’t have as many athletes and, when you do have athletes, it creates phenomenal opportunities for people. We’ve got to see what the kids can do when we get them on the grass. If we have a kid who can sling it, we will do that. If we have a workhorse in the backfield, we will do that, but you have to have the guys up front who can be effective blocking.”

Robertsdale is scheduled to open the 2024 season at home against Chickasaw on Aug. 23. The Golden Bears move up in classification in 2024, leaving the tightly contested 6A, Region 1 race and joining Class 7A, Region 1 along with Alma Bryant, Baker, Daphne, Davidson, Fairhope, Foley and Mary G. Montgomery.