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McIntosh's Rutherford named top coach McIntosh High School had its most impressive season in 13 years this past season. Coming off of a 2-8 season in Coach James Rutherford's first year, the Demons posted a 6-4 record and won the 1A Region 1 Area Championship. Coach James Rutherford, 33-years old, has been selected as the Southwest Alabama All-Region Coach of the Year for bringing the Demons from worst to first in just his second season as a head coach. McIntosh fell in the first round of the playoffs to Sunshine but the Demons hope this is the start of something special for the football program. "We were 2-8 my first year," he said. We lost four games by six points. I thought we should have been 5-5 last year. I think the kids just had to get used to the way I coached and the attitude I brought to the table. They had never been around a person that wanted to work as much as I did. We work a lot. I had a lot of things going on with parents saying-'This guy works these kids to death'- but this year we haven't had that problem," Coach Rutherford said. "This year we ended up going 6-4 and won the region championship. I credit it to the kids. They took on a workman-like attitude, the same attitude I have. They believe in what we are doing. It is just a good bunch of kids. The potential is here to win games every year. You just have to turn the attitude around. And I think that is what I have done. You have to turn the attitude from-'I think I can lose, to I think I can win'," Rutherford added. Rutherford talked of what this season's success meant to his players and to him. "I think our kids are proud of themselves. I try to be humble and not talk about it. It is just something that happens when you go to work. If you work hard enough those awards will come to you. I am just proud of the kids. We have some of the best athletes around. We just had to turn the attitudes around," Rutherford said of his kids "Last year the kids didn't really want to work hard. They didn't really know how," he added. " "The basketball program has always been good here. They make the playoffs every year. I told them there is no point in the basketball team making the play-offs and you not making the play-offs. It is the same kids. You just have to put more work in it. When basketball ended last year we went to work. I never had to tell a kid to get in the weight room. It was just a changing of the attitudes," Rutherford explained "The kids embraced everything we tried to teach them," he added Coach Rutherford picked another big award earlier this season when the Alabama Sports Writers Association picked the McIntosh coach as the 1A Coach of the Year. What did that award mean to the coach? "It tells me my peers think I have done a good job. My dad has worked construction all his life. I just credit it to him and teaching me how to work hard. How to get what you want by working hard and doing what is right and doing it the right way. I try to be humble about it. It is a great award but awards don't really mean anything unless you win a state championship. That is my goal; I want McIntosh High to win a state championship. And I believe it will happen," Rutherford said. Rutherford said he never could have imagined being named Coach of the Year by two different organizations in just his second year as a football head coach. "If you would have wrote this up and told me I would have won two awards for being Coach of the Year last year when I was 2-8. I would have told you that you were a lie. I would have said it was no way it could have happened. Last year it was a tough situation. I came in and these kids were tough, I will be honest with you. They had never had a coach like me, one that wanted and strove for discipline and hard work. They were like, 'Man, this guy is so tough on us; he is going to try to kill one of us'," he said. " I told them I am not going to try to kill you but I am going to make you go to the closest to the edge you can go. And then come back." "This year they took that and worked harder than I expected. Everything we put them through they did it and then some. I am proud of myself, I will be honest. But there are other goals I want to set for myself also," he said.
"I think right now I want people to think it was a fluke. McIntosh is just going to go back to losing. But I can tell you, when they think that it is going to be really tough on them. I only lose five seniors off that team. I think we are going to be just as good or better. I think we are going to be better actually, because of the simple fact those kids have been around me for three years now. They know what I expect, they know how to work. Our goal right now is if we don't make it to Sweet Water and play them; because that is where the state championship goes through down in the south. We don't think we will have accomplished anything," he added
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