Musical chairs
- Updated: February 20, 2025
White Plains’ Jennings headed back to Ohatchee as Indians’ head football coach, and Jacksonville’s Smith headed to White Plains.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
Chris Findley’s departure from Ohatchee has set off a chain reaction among high school football coaches changing schools.
White Plains’ Blake Jennings will return to Ohatchee as the Indians’ head coach, and Jacksonville’s Clint Smith will take the White Plains job.
The Calhoun County Board of Education approved both moves at the board’s Thursday meeting. Both coaches informed their teams of their pending moves Tuesday.
Both moves come after Findley announced his resignation at Ohatchee to follow his wife’s career move. Lauren Findley left her job at Jacksonville State University’s admissions office for a vice president’s job at Texas Wesleyan University.
Jennings’ move back to Ohatchee after two years as White Plains’ head football and baseball coach came as little surprise. He coached 12 years at Ohatchee before going to White Plains, serving as White Plains’ defensive coordinator and head baseball coach.
Smith’s move from Jacksonville to White Plains came as more of a surprise. He led Jacksonville to 12 consecutive playoff berths in his 13 years there, including a Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2019, and will become the latest to try to end White Plains’ 31-year playoff drought.
Smith is 162-94 in 24 years as a head coach at Trinity Christian, Saks and Jacksonville. That includes a 105-47 record in 13 seasons at Jacksonville.
He said it’s time for a new challenge.
“The first thing is, I’ve been blessed at Jacksonville,” he said. “I’ve been there for 13 wonderful years, had some great administration, great coaches, great community, great young men that I’ve been able to build relationships with. This worked out at White Plains where they’re going to allow me to have that, and I’m super excited.”
Smith’s move will reunite him with White Planis’ long-time boys’ basketball coach, Chris Randall, who helped to recruit him to White Plains. The two worked together at Trinity Christian from 1999-2001.
“I’ve known Clint over 25 years, and the last time we were together, it worked out pretty good,” Randall said. “I’ve dreamed of coaching together with Clint again, and I really sold him on the foundation that Blake had laid, how much they’ve improved over the last two years, how much they’ve gotten better in the weight room.
“I just told him the foundation is there to be successful. Blake had really done a great job of getting the kids to buy in, the way the kids come to the weight room ready to work. I just sold him on the fact that, you’re not going to have a bunch of four- and five-stars, but you’ve got a four- and five-star culture that is in place. He just seemed to be drawn to it.”
Smith’s wife Ashley taught and coached at White Plains for 17 years, and the Smiths lived in White Plains during those years.
“One thing I know White Plains people love White Plains,” he said. “They just have a great community, great support for their school and students, and that’s a great thing to have.”
Smith took over Jacksonville’s program after it suffered two consecutive losing seasons. The Golden Eagles had made four playoff appearances in program history before he arrived.
He took over Saks’ program after the Wildcats had suffered nine consecutive losing seasons.
Jennings got White Plains within one victory of its first playoff berth since 1994 in 2023, his first season there. Smith hopes to work another turnaround at White Plains.
“When the opportunity came up, it was time,” Smith said. “”Everybody says you know when it’s time, and this was the time.
“I’m excited about the opportunity. After talking to Mr. (White Plains principal Andy) Ward and Superintendent (Tony) Willis, their vision for football the football program at White Plains and my vision for football at White Plains matched up perfectly.”
Jennings’ move comes after he went 6-14 in two football seasons at White Plains.
Jennings served as an assistant football coach at Ohatchee for 12 years. He was defensive coordinator for nine years, covering the program’s recent resurgence, which started after Scott Martin became the Indians’ head coach before the 2014 season.
Jennings continued in that role through the 2022 midseason transition to Chris Findley, who was promoted to interim head coach for the rest of that season and became the permanent head coach.
Jennings was named Alabama Football Coaches Association’s Class 2A assistant coach of the year after the 2019 season. He helped Ohatchee make the playoffs seven consecutive years, including a run to the 2016 Class 3A semifinals.
“It feels like home,” Jennings said. “There’s a lot of good people out there that work at the school still that I know and still have a lot of good relationships with. It’ll be good to be back. It really will be. It’s a good place. Ohatchee really is.”
Jennings thanked White Plains principal Andy Ward for giving him his first shot to be a head football coach, calling him a “top notch” principal. Jennings said he also drew a lot in two years of working with Randall, who was also part of the football coaching staff during those two years.
Jennings said he has a file of “Randallisms” saved on his cell phone.
“Being around Chris Randall has made me a much better coach than I ever thought would be,” Jennings said. “That was something that, me personally, I needed, in my opinion, was to be around some different people and get to learn from other people. …
“A couple of years ago, I remember having a conversation with Coach Randall, and I told somebody on the phone, ‘I think that’s me in 20 years. ‘ He just is always fired up. He wants kids to do right. He’s all about discipline and kids giving their all, but he also loves on them all the time.”
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