By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



He once had plans to build a house there and now he’ll be coaching there.

Gardendale head football coach Keith Luker was approved as the new head football catch at Oak Grove High School by the Jefferson County School Board on Thursday night.

Luker will assume his new duties on March 3.

“My wife in from Oak Grove,” Luker said. “We’ve gone to the baptist church there for 24 years since we’ve been married. A few years back I planned on building a house there. When I was at Pleasant Grove, we planned to build a house in Oak Grove and commute to school for my teaching job. But then the Gardendale job came open and we felt like God was leading us here. But we always thought we’d get back down there one day.”

Luker stayed in Gardendale for four seasons and took the Rockets to the 5A state playoffs in both 2006 and 2007, after suffering through losing seasons in his first two years on the Rocket’s sideline. Deciding to leave the Gardendale program was a decision he and his family wrestled with.

“The deadline to apply for this job was Tuesday night at midnight,” Luker said. “Up until 9 p.m. that night, my wife and I were both saying—no. It was a very hard choice to make.”

The Oak Grove job opened up when Mike Battles left the Tiger program to take the Bibb County job in December.

“This has nothing to do with football,” Luker said. “People who know me already know that, but people who don’t know me won’t understand it.”

Luker said it’s too early to decide on who his assistants might be, but he said he’s like to continue to work with the group he’s been working with.

“I’d love to take all my assistants with me,” he said. “They’ve done a great job and I know how capable they are. But, it comes down to what teaching slots are open over there and who can fill what slot. I don’t know for sure who my assistants will be.”

The Rockets will move into Class 6A, this coming fall, but Luker said the move up had no bearing on his decision to leave the Rockets now.

“This isn’t about that at all,” he said. “My wife’s father was a pastor there for 37 years. Oak Grove is home to us. It’s a chance to go home.”

Luker said Gardendale mayor Kenny Clemons, the Rocket booster club, the administration at Gardendale High School, his assistant coaches and the players he got to work with, made his tenure with the Rocket’s program “a very special time for me and my family. We’ll always have great lasting memories of Gardendale. I felt fortunate to have been able to coach here.”

Before coming to Gardendale, Luker had been the head football coach at Pleasant Grove and prior to that, he was the head football coach at Fultondale High School.