The Alexander City Outlook

Steve Savarese

Steve Savarese has won state championships in both Alabama and Kansas, but those titles aren’t the thing he’s most proud of as a former coach.

He cherishes the relationships he’s developed with athletes, coaches and parents through his career more than those accolades.

“I still keep in contact with many of my former players, former assistant coaches, teachers at schools I’ve worked at and parents of former students,”Savarese said. “That’s been one of the most rewarding things of coaching football.”

Saverse, who served as Benjamin Russell High School’s head coach from 1985 to 1996, is now the executive director for the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

Savarese is a native of Montgomery and earned his bachelor’s degree at Southwestern College in Kansas. Four years after his college graduation, he led Douglass (Kan.) High School to a state championship in Class 3A.

After seven years of coaching in Kansas, Savarese returned to Alabama as a coach in Ensley, leading the Yellow Jackets to area championships in two of three seasons.

But in 1985, Savarese came to Alexander City for his longest tenure at a school in his career. It was a time in which his children were in school.

“Alexander City is a special place to me because that’s where our kids were raised for the majority of their childhood,” Savarese said. “They both graduated from Benjamin Russell. And I had the opportunity to coach my son.”

While at Benjamin Russell, Savarese said he had an excellent staff of coaches, including many who are stayed at Benjamin Russell many years after he left.

“We had a great group of coaches,” Savarese said. “They were great people to work with. We made a great team.”

After being selected an NFL High School Coach of the Year his final year at Benjamin Russell, Savarese went on to coach Daphne where he won a Class 6A state championship in 2001, ironically the same year Benjamin Russell won Class 5A title.

He then went to McGill-Toolen in Mobile before joining AHSAA.

As a head coach, he compiled a 281-98 record as a head football coach and is a member of the AHSAA Hall of Fame.

He coached at four schools in Alabama and was voted “Outstanding Teacher” at each one.

“That was a huge honor,” Savarese said. “That’s a honor voted on my fellow teachers.”

As executive director, Savarese’s job is to help promote the state high school athletics, specifically to provide a championship program for each of its sports.

He has introduced a revenue sharing program with its members and initiated programs to improve sportsmanship in athletics. AHSAA is also building a Hall of Fame in its Montgomery building.

Savarese said the future of high school sports is bright.

“I think we’ll see more Web streaming of playoff championships,” Savarese said. “We’ve just completed the new Super 6 contracts with Alabama and Auburn and the Final 48 in Birmingham. We’re trying to find other ways of increasing exposure of our sports.”

Although it is important to win, Savarese said there’s much more to being a coach than that.

“It’s about teaching lifelong lessons to athletes,” Savarese said. “Athletics teaches you about commitment, showing up on time, keeping your work area clean, having a good work ethic – many of the simple things that make you successful in your career and your life.

“Each day, I made our teams clean the locker room before they went home. Now, many of those former players keep their desks and offices clean, and that was instilled from football.”

Savarese said owes all the success he’s seen in his career to the students, assistant coaches and parents he has worked with over the years.

“Any of the individual recognitions weren’t because of what I did,” Savarese said. “It was because of all the coaches, athletes and community. There are no individual awards.”