This is an opinion piece.

UMS-Wright coach Terry Curtis admitted this week that he has changed his style and scheme a little over the years. A little.

The Bulldogs do more with their fullbacks now than they used to, he pointed out. They also use more “eye candy” motion in an effort to deceive defenses.

But Curtis still calls every play from the sideline — “I’m not going to put the game on a 15, 16, 17-year-old kid. They don’t watch as much film as I do,” he said.

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His offense still huddles in a football world where many might view that as “old school.”

“I’m big on the huddle,” Curtis said this week on the Cooper Restaurants “Inside High School Sports Show on Sports Talk 99.5 FM in Mobile. “I think that quarterback and those linemen can look each other in the eye and question people’s manhood, whose doing good and who is not in a huddle. You don’t have a chance to tell them that when you never see them except on the sidelines.”

No one should question the results.

On Friday, UMS-Wright defeated Class 5A, Region 1 rival Williamson 17-8 to complete a perfect 10-0 regular season and hand Curtis another milestone win.

The Bulldogs coach, who turned 72 earlier this week, is now tied with former Vestavia Hills coach Buddy Anderson for the most wins in AHSAA football history. Both have 346. Curtis can pass Anderson with a win over Headland in the first round of the playoffs next week.

He humbly deflected any talk of the milestone earlier this week, though he did admit the record was special.

“It’s something I’ll be proud of because it seems like a lot of other people are proud of it,” he said. “My two boys give me a hard time all the time, but even they seem to be excited about it.”

Curtis also is quick to credit those in his life who have been a part of his success.

Assistant coaches like Tommy Davis, Ronnie Roberts, Don Jennings, Jay Koziol and many others.

Administrators like Albert Lowery, Linda Sparkman, Roberts, Tony Havard and Doug Barber. “I’ve never worked for a bad administration,” he said.

His mentors include Bill Bacon, Ben Glover, Ed Lathan, Robert Shaw, Larry Henderson, Lowery, Lefty Anderson and Ed Baker. He credits Baker, his eighth-grade coach, for the reason he went into the profession.

And, of course, the countless players who have laid it on the line for him for the last 34 years.

“I’ll be the first to tell you – Yes, I’ve been the head coach and I’ve probably gotten too much of the credit and taken too much of the blame, but I’ve had some great coaching staffs and great people around me,” he said.

Curtis is finishing his 24th year at UMS-Wright. The Bulldogs have made the playoffs every season and won 8 state titles under Curtis. I thought he might decide to ride off into the sunset when his team won three straight 4A titles from 2017-2019.

He didn’t.

In the three years since then, he’s gone 29-7. This year, his UMS team has been ranked No. 1 in Class 5A since August. Will the Bulldogs win a 9th state title in December in Auburn? That remains to be seen. The playoff road will be daunting.

One thing is for sure, though. If they do win it, they’ll have done it the Curtis way.

“To win football games, you have to be physical, you have to be tough,” he said. “If you are going to win championships, that is where it starts. You don’t see very many teams who are in spread offenses throwing it 50 times a game win many championships. It’s the ones who can run the football and mix in the pass.”

I’m done asking Terry Curtis win he will retire.

I’m not sure he ever will.

And that’s not a bad thing.

We need Terry Curtis – and more just like him — in high school sports.

The amazing Admirals

People that know more about high school volleyball than I told me this would probably be the year when The Streak would end.

Bayside Academy had won 20 straight state volleyball titles over multiple classifications, but this season the Admirals had been moved up to Class 6A by competitive balance, lost their No. 1 ranking for the first time in more than a decade and faced talented threats like Spanish Fort and Mountain Brook.

The streak was bound to end. And then it didn’t.

The Admirals won again on Thursday, beating Mountain Brook in the semifinals and coming back from a 2-1 deficit against rival Spanish Fort in the finals to win No. 21 in a row.

Bayside has now won 31 titles spanning five decades in six classifications. The consecutive title streak is a national record that likely will never be broken. Just like I’m not sure Terry Curtis will ever retire, I’m also not sure Hall of Fame coach Ann Schilling will ever lose.

And what about the Bayside players? MVP Blakeley Robbins, Misty Kate Smith, Maysie Douglas, Georgia McInnis, Mary Whitehurst, Grier Broughton, Lucy Fralle and the others on this team and every team before them. How much pressure they must feel to keep this streak going.

It’s THE storyline in Alabama in high school volleyball. It has been for years and will be until it ends. If it ends.

Amazing. That’s all I know to say.

Thought for the Day

“In every high and stormy gale, my Anchor holds within the veil.” – Cornerstone, Hillsong Worship.

80s quote of the week

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” – Dirty Dancing

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 Wednesday and Friday on AL.com. He can be heard weekly on the Cooper Restaurants “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays.