Woodland hires former Falkville, Hazel Green coach as new head football coach

Woodland High School has named former Falkville and Hazel Green head coach Joel Schrenk as its new head football coach.

The hire was made official at a meeting of the Randolph County Board of Education Thursday.

The Bobcats have been conducting a search for a new coach since former coach Blair Armstrong announced that he was stepping down following the 2021 season. Armstrong guided the Bobcats for three seasons.

Schrenk coached in Tennessee before taking the Falkville job prior to the 2012 season. He spent seven seasons at Falkville and posted a 49-27 record, becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach. He led the Blue Devils to an 11-1 record in his final season there in 2018 and won a total of two region championships.

Success was a little more difficult to come by in his three years at Hazel Green as he went 7-23 and did not make the playoffs at the 6A school.

Armstrong took over a struggling Woodland program and, after a 1-9 mark in his first year, guided the Bobcats to a 13-12 record, two playoff appearances and three playoff wins over the next two seasons. It was a remarkable turnaround for a program that had missed the postseason entirely for five straight seasons. But he missed a couple of games during this past season due to health issues and decided after the season to step down.

Schrenk becomes the fourth Woodland head coach in the past nine years.

We will have more on the hire of Joel Schrenk at Woodland in the print edition of the Randolph Leader next week.