Don Dover was introduced as the next head football coach at Fultondale High School on Thursday morning. 

Fultondale High School has named its 12th head football coach.

On Thursday morning the Jefferson County Board of Education approved Don Dover to fill an opening left by Richie Busby 22 days earlier. Dover worked on Busby’s staff for the entirety of his five-year stint, serving as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. This will be his first stop as a head coach.

According to Dover, he split play calling duties with Busby as Fultondale tore through opposing defenses at a clip of 44 points per game in 2017.

“We’ll tweak some things, but we’re going to be very similar,” said Dover of his offensive plan moving forward. “I’m not going to change all this and all that just to show what I know. We’re going to go with what the kids know so we can learn how to run and tackle and block. We’re not learning new offenses and defenses.”

Busby, who won back-to-back Region 6 championships with the Wildcats, accepted the head coaching position at Class 6A Helena on Jan. 24.

Dover, a former player at Berry High School (now Hoover), said he will begin looking for a replacement at offensive coordinator, but is “very comfortable” with Fultondale’s existing staff. He did mention that assistant coaches could shift positions, but there are no current plans to hire any new coaches other than an offensive coordinator.

Before joining Busby’s staff at Fultondale in 2013, Dover bounced around the college ranks as an offensive coordinator and assistant coach. He served as a coordinator at Birmingham Southern from 2008 to 2010. After the berth of his third child, he briefly stepped away from coaching before he began at Fultondale as an assistant under Busby.

“I’m a positive guy. We get to represent Fultondale High School and I want us to take a lot of pride in that,” said Dover. “There are no shortcuts. We want to win every ball game. That’s our goal, but we’re going to do it the right way and it’s going to be through work… we can’t just show up on Friday nights and expect people to bow down because we won a few games the last couple years.”

Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.