Driving home
- Updated: March 13, 2025
After three years of commuting to B.B. Comer, Herbert will get to coach in Calhoun County again, as Pleasant Valley’s boys’ head basketball coach.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
Marcus Herbert commuted an hour one way to work every day while coaching at B.B. Comer. Now, he can just drive to Pleasant Valley.
The Calhoun County Board of Education approved Herbert’s hiring as Pleasant Valley’s High’s next head boys’ basketball coach at the board’s Thursday meeting. He’ll take over for Brad Hood, who announced in February that he would step back from a head-coaching role.
A Weaver graduate for former head boys’ basketball coach and track coach for his alma mater, Herbert was an assistant coach under Ryan Chambless at Rome (Ga.) High School before working a year at Oxford Middle School.
He’s coached B.B. Comer’s boys’ basketball team the past three years.
“It’s exciting,” Herbert said. “I’m glad to be back home, closer to my family to be more involved. That’s the main thing, my family being able to attend and be in the community more than we have been doing.”
Herbert succeeded Daryl Hamby as Weaver’s boys’ basketball coach in 2018 and coached the Bearcats three seasons. He coached the track team from 2014-2020, and his tenure included a Class 3A state-runner up finish in 2017.
He had to relinquish coaching roles when the Calhoun County Board of Education interpreted a state employment law to mean that hourly employees not holding teaching certificates could no longer serve in coaching roles.
The time in between varsity head coaching jobs saw Herbert finish his course work at Jacksonville State University. B.B. Comer gave him his next chance to be a varsity head coach.
“They gave me an opportunity,” Herbert said. “They’ve been great to me. It was very difficult making that choice, but you have to put family first. They understand. …
“We did a lot of good things. It’s just hard to really do it the right way, being so far away.”
He coached Pleasant Valley’s boys basketball team for eight years over two stints, wrapped around his time with the girls’ program, going 97-105 two two area titles. His last stint coaching the boys spanned five years.
His son Greyson is an eighth-grader in the program.
“I believe Coach Hood did a tremendous job with the program,” Herbert said. “He left it in really good hands. There’s talent there. From the eighth-grade class to the senior class, there’s a lot of ability there, and I’m excited about that.”
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