A Test of Will. How Columbia did the impossible

It all started on a fall night in October of 2015.

All historical records and information were found using AHSFHS.Org, Al.com, NOAA.Gov, Pro Football Reference.

Many writers and analysts point to the last victory the Columbia Eagles had on October 16th, 2015 in a 34-16 victory over Ardmore. Today we are going to the start of the losing streak itself. We will also be looking at the last ten and a half years and ask the question, “How did we get here?” It is a wild journey, involving political office changes, Super Bowl wins by former alumni, countless coaching changes, facing a school that had scored zero points the year before, an NFL Network documentary, and so much more. All before a Columbia Eagle win. So, let’s start from the beginning.

A loss to a school that no longer exists.

The day, October 23rd, 2015 was just like any other in late October in Huntsville, Alabama. The air was brisk, the high was 79° and the low was 51° that night. It was the Eagles senior night, celebrating a team that was at this point, 2-6 coming off an upset win on the road at Ardmore. Tonight, they play their city rivals, J.O. Johnson at Milton Frank Stadium in Huntsville, Alabama. This is their last season ever playing football. In fact, it was the last year of the school’s existence, as the school was set to close at the end of the academic year.

The Eagles did not play at the same level as they had the week before, as the Jaguars handled the Eagles, with little doubt. The Jaguars put up over 275 yards of rushing to help defeat the Eagles. Columbia made it close in the end with three fourth quarter touchdowns, but the final was 38-22.

This would be the final win on the field, the following week, Butler would forfeit its game against J.O. Johnson. 44 years of history now would end, and the beginning of new history would begin across the field.

The Streak Begins, and so does Rock Bottom

The following week the Eagles would lose their regular season finale to Central Florence to finish 2-8 on the season. The following 2016 season, the Eagles would go 0-10, with only one game being a one-possession game. The rest were blowouts. The brass at Columbia decided to move on from head coach Chris Hancock and hire an exciting new coach, Marcus McCall.

Marcus McCall’s credentials as a high school football coach in the second-largest classification were questionable. His resume consisted of being the middle school basketball coach for two years at, Butler which is now closed.

The McCall era at Columbia was anything but exciting. The Eagles put up only 33 points total in his first year while allowing 492 points. The Eagles only managed to score in four of their ten regular-season contest. They reached double digits only once in a 56-13 loss to 5-5 Albertville squad. The closest margin of defeat was by 29 points, so none were really even that close. The second year under McCall showed very few signs of improvement. They did improve, scoring 42 total points in the regular season, and only allowed 476 points. Their closest loss this season was 29 points again. They reached double digits only once, in their regular season finale versus Randolph.

Year three of the McCall era couldn’t make it to October. By Week 4 of the 2019 season, the Eagles hadn’t scored a point and had been outscored 220-0.

Nicholas Wells stepped into the role of head coach on September 20th, 2019. He had more of a background in coaching football, being a junior varsity head coach for seven years before stepping into the role of the Columbia Eagles. “We can only go up and get better,” Wells said at the time. He was right, but it would be a long time before that would come to fruition.

The 2019 season is considered the rock-bottom moment of the Columbia Eagles football program. They scored a grand total of 20 points while allowing 559. They managed to score three times in two games: once in a 55-6 loss to Athens and twice in a 44-14 loss to Randolph, a much smaller private school.

But this led to many questions from the peanut gallery. “Why don’t they just drop down a classification?” “Why don’t they just move regions?” Well, they were trapped.

Trapped in a region of doom

You would think that after losing so much, the school might finally catch a break and get sent to a different region, or maybe even drop a classification to help. They were firmly in the second biggest classification in the AHSAA. They also weren’t allowed to drop down classifications in the AHSAA just due to trying to be competitive. Their opponents were also absolute juggernaut programs. Well established blue blood programs were always in their region because they were always the same size, and close in proximity.

Which led to people saying “Well what if they played smaller, weaker schools?” They did, and they lost. They played Tanner, a 2A program nearly half the size of Columbia in 2020, and lost 50-40. Closer, but not really. Tanner finished that season 6-5, while Columbia finished 0-10.

Another problem arose, with the publicized losing streak, even bad teams would practice hard and make sure they were not the ones to be the ones to lose. Everyone would bring their A-game for the exact opposite reason: You didn’t want to be ‘that team that lost to Columbia.’

Some fans were calling for the program to cease operations, some fans poked fun and some online said “Well if they had Trey Flowers playing right now, they would win at least one game!”

Wait a minute, who the heck is Trey Flowers?

The Alumni Who Won Super Bowls

Something many programs in the state of Alabama cannot say. Some long-storied programs have never had a single player get drafted or even make a 53-man roster in the NFL. But somehow, someway the Columbia Eagles had one. A school that opened in 2006, had already had an NFL player. He wasn’t just any player, it was a two-time super bowl champion. A starter for the New England Patriots and Detroit Lions. He played at Columbia? Yes he did, he was a three-star prospect for the Eagles and originally committed to Georgia Tech before flipping to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Flowers went on to be selected in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL draft, and the following February, he won the first of two Super Bowls. He went on to have a great career, finishing with 31.5 sacks and 265 tackles in the NFL, and being inducted into the New England Patriots all-2010’s team.

All of this before Columbia had won a game to break the streak.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

The seasons did not get better for Columbia. Coach Wells bowed out after the 2021 season, where the Eagles scored 30 points and allowed 350 points. Coach Josh LouAllen steps into the role of Head Coach of the Columbia Eagles. Now we are heading into the 2022 season, and it is starting to pick up that they have one of the nations longest all time losing streaks. Coach LouAllen brings in 16 years of coaching experience, including being a head coach in the AHSAA with Danville. He went 0-9 and was shown the door after another lackluster 2022 season where the Eagles scored 40 points to opponents 500.

Sean Watson has been hired as the new head coach of Columbia. A character nonetheless, Watson brought a new attitude and creative, hard-nosed mindset to help break the streak. But the first year in 2023 was anything but creative for Eagles fans. Being outscored 50 to 413, Eagles fans had seen this story before. The closest game was a 21-3 loss to 2A Tanner. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel for the Eagles faithful. Senior classes had graduated without ever seen a Columbia victory in football. Could there be anything worse?

The Battle of Bad – 2024

The 2024 offseason brought reclassification like the AHSAA does every two years, and with this came new regions. Columbia’s region actually got harder with the addition of Jasper alongside their traditional Stallworth region opponents. But this came with new opportunities to schedule a non region game the Eagles could possibly win.

There wasn’t any better option for the Columbia Eagles than the Huffman Vikings.

The 2023 Huffman Vikings were historically bad. They went 0-10, being outscored 578-0. They did not score a point the entire season. This was a program that had produced a top-10 NFL Draft pick as recently as 2009. Now Huffman went a whole season not scoring a single point.

So Columbia gave them a call and made that game happen. Social media exploded when this matchup was announced. “The stoppable force meets the movable object” social media remarked. It seemed like a great battle for both squads to get back on their feet, and they were set to meet in Week 2.

Columbia did their part, they lost 68-6 to Priceville. Huffman however had a much closer loss and actually put up 26 points in a close loss to Midfield. It no longer felt like this will be much of a game. It wasn’t as Huffman beat Columbia 52-14.

A program who scored zero points in ten weeks of competition the year before, had defeated Columbia by 38 points. This felt like an even new rock bottom, as the rest of the season dragged on, suddenly Columbia actually had a close game. For the first time since 2020, Columbia only lost by 10 points to Hazel Green.

Sean Watson resigned at the end of the season, and a shining star arrived, from the Lee County Police Force.

Welcome, Sammie Coates

Coates had been patrolling the streets of Auburn, where he had been a star receiver, as a police officer. He had been a wide receivers coach at a few colleges but never was the head coach. He had won a state title with the Leroy Bears, a program with a history that was light-years ahead of where Columbia was.

So, Coates took a chance and took the job in 2025. National media outlets took note of this long losing streak. NBC’s Today Show took notice of the losing streak, Sports Illustrated took note of the losing streak. It became very public knowledge so much so, it drew the attention of the NFL Network.

NFL Films and Gatorade decided to produce a documentary similar to Hard Knocks. It was titled All the Reasons Not to Quit: The Columbia HS Story and would follow the team throughout its 2025 season.

Improvement was slow, but noticeable. Coates had an 11 point loss to Huffman this year, much better than their previous 38 point loss. The streak nearly came to an end on September 26th, 2025 when Columbia had a lead against East Lawrence but fell short in the end 28-24. It was their last real chance of winning before their streak would hit 100 straight losses. The Jasper Vikings made history when they defeated the Eagles 61-22, giving Columbia its 100th straight loss. The following week, Hazel Green defeated Columbia 34-8.

But there was hope.

A chance to end the streak arrives

Columbia receives some transfers from other schools including Christian Richey, a well-touted running back from a bigger program. They also received an offensive coordinator named Andro Williams. Williams went 141-84 as a head coach in Alabama, leaving his job as the head coach of Danville to take the role of offensive coordinator at Columbia. The schedule arrived, and the first game was against a struggling 2A program in Greensboro.

The AHSAA also split public and private schools, and Columbia landed in a much more favorable region, with schools that aren’t top tier football programs like before.

For the first time in nearly ten years, there was actually a belief, there was even somewhat confidence. A confidence that this albatross across the neck of a football program would finally be laid to rest. Spring football came and went, summer workouts, media days, it all led up to a hot muggy night on August 22nd, 2026.

101

Milton Frank Stadium had been the site of Columbia’s first loss all the way back in 2015. On this fateful night, it would also host the Columbia Eagles for their first chance at a win in what felt like an eternity. Videographers, media members, cameramen and social media personalities had gathered along the sidelines, waiting to witness history.

The Greensboro Raiders made the nearly three-hour trip with a good crowd following them to try not to be the one to fall to Columbia. And through the first quarter, it certainly looked like the streak would continue through another week.

Greensboro went straight down the field and scored a touchdown. Columbia proceeded to throw a pick six on the following play to get in an early hole, 14-0. Many fans on X and high school forums had the same reaction: “Same old Columbia.”

However this was not the same old Columbia. Christian Richey went on to have a monster game, and rushed for 207 yards and four touchdowns. The Eagles fought back and scored 41 unanswered to put an end to the dreaded 101 game losing streak.

The fans stormed Milton Frank Stadium. It was not a close victory, it was a blowout, and a packed out home stadium could not be contained to their seats any further. Coach Coates got a celebratory ice bath. Fans ran around the field with flags labeled ‘C H S.’ They were going to celebrate all night in Huntsville.

Social Media’s reaction

When accounts like BamaPreps, MaxPreps, even Barstool Sports posted about the Eagles snapping their decade-long losing streak, fans were just about as happy as the players were, with hundreds of comments congratulating the Eagles, Coach Coates, the community and more for ending this curse.

Fans were celebrating from different parts of the country, who had never seen the Eagles play a down of football. Not knowing the hardships they had faced. From middle school basketball coaches to losing by nearly forty to a school that didn’t score a point the year before. It was like everybody was a Columbia Eagle that night.

Fans who were once quick to dismiss the Eagles and poke fun at them were now showering them with praise, with some even calling for them to win the following week.

What Happens Now?

The future is bright for Columbia. Will they win another game this season? Maybe. Can they? Yes. The sky is the limit from here on out, and it is time to start a new streak with Columbia.

A winning streak.