By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



As an athlete, he participated in the sport for more than a decade, starting in a junior program and finishing his career at the college level. He’s spent more than 30 years officiating the sport. He’s won a state title as a head coach.

Fultondale assistant coach Randy Haught has been associated with the sport of wrestling for 51 years, but grappling hasn’t grown old for him. He still enjoys it as much today as he ever did. Talking with him, you get the sense that if he ever gets put in a nursing home, he probably wheel himself out on weekends to catch a tournament.

“I can’t see myself ever getting away from wrestling completely. If coach (Fultondale head coach Billy) Hughes ever kicks my butt out of his wrestling room, I hope I can catch on somewhere else and help them. After you’ve been involved with something for 51 years, it’s hard to walk away from it. It’s part of my routine and it’s something I love. I can’t walk away from it.”

Haught, who has 31 years of service in Alabama as a high school referee, has in the past been the head wrestling coach at John Carroll, Pleasant Grove and Hoover.

Each time Haught accepted a coaching job, he stopped working as an official. Each time he left a coaching job, he resumed his career as a referee.

Haught retired from education in 1993 after 34 years of teaching and administration, but he didn’t stay home long. He needed to get out of the house and get back to the active lifestyle he had kept up for years.

“I was only retired a month,” he said. “When I was home, I was bouncing off the walls. I needed something to do. I was used to having 18 or 20 days. I was always busy. I had to get back involved with the sport.”

He resumed officiating the sport and today he can look back on the past 31 state wrestling championships—28 of those tournaments he worked as an official—the other three he was there as a coach.

In 2005, Haught took over the Hoover wrestling program.

The Bucs won a 6A state title, the second in the school’s history. According to Haught, he can’t take credit for their success, he will tell you he just tried to keep the program going. He said the number of outstanding wrestlers on that club made the state tournament win easy.

“There was so much talent on that club that anyone could have coached that team to a state championship,” he said. “I took the job right after a coach who had been there 18 years retired. I thought it would be for only one year.

“When I took the job, I told the school administration, I would keep the kids in shape and they would do the rest. We traveled all over the country with that team and won several big tournaments. Teams have scored more points than we did at the state tournament, but I don’t think anyone will ever break our record of a 65-point winning margin over the second place team.”

After the state tournament was over, Haught left Hoover, but decided he needed to help out a program as an assistant.

“I had known Billy (Hughes) for a while, and I wanted to help bring the program back to where it used to be,” Haught said. “In the 1990s, this was one of the strongest programs in the state. They had still been having success—having a state champion or two each year, but they weren’t as strong a team as they used to be. I wanted to part of getting this program back to the top.”

Last season, with the help of Haught and Jason Heath, Hughes lead the Wildcats to a 1A-4A state runner-up spot. Entering this season, Fultondale is considered one of the two favorites, along with Walter-Welborn, for the state title.

“I’m not saying by any means that last year’s success was due to me being there, but I think I have helped them,” he said. “I feel we’re getting our program built back. Our numbers are way up. We’ve got more kids out this year than they’ve had in a while at Fultondale.”

Haught said the progress he sees in the Wildcats program is in three main areas—the wrestlers are in championship shape, they’re developing a mentally-tough attitude and the Wildcats are gaining confidence they can win anytime they take to the mat.

Haught is quick to point out that former Wildcat wrestlers returning to help the current team has also contributed to Fultondale’s success at the state level.

In the offseason, Haught opens the Fultondale wrestling room and works with not only the Wildcat wrestlers, but he also tutors grapplers from other schools as well.

“The bottom line is, I want to help any kid who wants to get better and learn more about wrestling,” he said. “I give any kid who shows up for the summer workouts the same kind of help I gave my kids when I was a head coach. To truly build the sport, you just can’t worry about the kids on the team you coach, you have to be willing to help everybody.

“I’m a volunteer coach, so I don’t hold a coaching card and technically I’m an official,” he said. “So that allows me to open that wrestle room throughout the year. We don’t have to worry about the state coming down on us.”

Haught has helped not only Fultondale wrestlers work out during the summer, but also Gardendale, Dora, Pinson Valley and Mortimer Jordan wrestlers.

Haught is still a part-time official and helps out anytime there’s a need for another official. For example, Haught officiated the tri-match between Scottsboro, Gardendale and Hayden earlier this season. However, Haught will only help out if the Wildcats are not wrestling on that particular day.

“That career is over with,” Haught said. “I consider myself a retired official. I only fill in now if they’re short handed. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to be an assistant coach and continue to do that. I’m doing exactly what I want to do now. I just love it.”