School Spotlight: Albertville High School, Albertville, Alabama.

Home of the Albertville High School Aggies in Albertville, Alabama.

Home of the Albertville Aggies in Albertville, Alabama.

Albertville High School is a four-year public high school located in the city of Albertville, Alabama. Albertville High School serves a diverse population serving approximately 1,736 students in grades 9-12, with a 17 to 1 student-teacher ratio. Albertville High School provides a variety of academic resources to the student population with advanced and AP courses, CTE pathways including Agriscience, Culinary Arts, Health Science, Business & Technology, and Advanced Manufacturing Welding and Computer Science, all ranking Albertville at #122 schools in the state of Alabama. Albertville’s school colors are red and black, representing a diverse community in Alabama with various fine arts, extracurricular activities, and athletics such as cross country, tennis, swimming, golf, track, etc. Albertville is also known for having a phenomenal band serving as an impact for the football atmosphere remarkably the best in the Southeast United States, who will be attending the Rose Bowl this upcoming January. Albertville has also produced quite a few notable alumni such as John Hannah in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Top 5 OL in history of NFL, and Charley Pell who was Head Coach for University of Florida. Shifting into Aggie’s Football, Albertville High School competes in the 4th Region Class 7A currently under Head Coach Bert Browne’s regime with a mission to turn the Aggie’s program around. The status of Albertville’s football program before his appearance consisted of a 1-9 record in the 2022 season, with no winning seasons in approximately 5 to 6 years. Many have doubted Coach Browne’s optimism on making playoffs this year, but Browne has already done so in his past coaching career in many more difficult situations. Albertville will prevail their underdog story with the enriched coaching and playing experience that Coach Browne delivers for the kids on and off the field, especially with Diamond in the Rough QB Andy Howard:

“For a program that has won two games in two years, our goal for me and this team is to make the playoffs. It takes baby steps.”

Aggies Head Coach, Bert Browne

Coach Browne has been coaching for 33 years varying off between the collegiate level and high school level. Region Coach of the Year for Tennessee Tech, Browne has been in the honorary position to be a Division I Assistant Coach, Division II Assistant Coach, Junior College Assistant Coach, and a remarkable Head Coach for many high schools all across Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, and currently Alabama. With an extensive background and playing history in high school and college, Bert Browne is a former Quarterback himself holding the top passing seasons in history at Tennessee Tech, where he eventually coached his alma mater. It is evident that Coach Browne has left a mark on every program he worked with. When 28-years-old, Coach Browne landed his first coaching job at a big school in Tennessee, where he received doubt and backlash for taking a position with a program that hasn’t seen a winning season in 16 years. However, in Coach Browne’s second season, Tennessee Tech went to the playoffs for the first time ever and finally had a winning season in 16 years. This frequent history of Coach Browne’s ability to ignore any doubt and transform it into a challenge emphasizes his perfect fit for Albertville’s turnaround process. In a 1-on-1 interview with Head Coach Bert Browne, he discussed the philosophy needed to instill desire and passion in a team to want to win,

“It’s about teaching these boys right from wrong. Part of taking a program over that has not been successful is instilling belief in them and what they’re doing. When you been beat down, you don’t have belief in yourself.”

Aggies Head Coach, Bert Browne

Coach Browne mentions how it takes discipline and through discipline, anything is possible. In order to see a transformation in Albertville Football, it takes getting up in the morning, lifting weights in the summer, and taking the extra mile to want to get better. The main priority Coach Browne mentioned for the rebuild era was finding the young men that will understand what he is trying to do, and one of the things about playing football is being able to buy in and put “Team before I”. Coach Bert Browne is the blueprint to any program he has joined with a previous losing season, and Albertville’s future is looking bright. In addition to the hiring process of a new coaching foundation, Albertville is currently looking at 70+ years in coaching experience combined overall. And with the overall support from the community that Coach Browne would describe as a “hidden gem”, Browne has come to the realization of wanting to live and settle in a great community and plans to stay until retirement at Albertville High School.

“It is a great town with great people. I left coaching at Tennessee Tech, my alma mater, to come here in Albertville so that says a lot”.

To finish off the interview with Head Coach Bert Browne, he highlighted three key players for the Albertville Aggies as potential Diamond in the Rough’s and recruits. Behind the scenes of a foundation are the young men that are willing to put in the work, day in and day out, to produce inevitable results that haven’t been seen before for Albertville. Honorably mentioned by Albertville Head Coach was QB, Andy Howard, MLB/OLB Elijah Filus, and WR/ OLB Xavier Havis. The upcoming spring training will be an exciting landscape of what’s to come for the Aggies.

  1. Andy Howard is a 6’2 205lb. class of 2024 Quarterback for the Aggies running a 4.7 and benching 225. Howard is a DITR to keep an eye on as he is provided the resources by a D1 Quarterback and Coaching staff. Howard is a product that can be transformed and become successful for the Aggies.
  2. Elijah Filus is a 6’2 185lb. Class of 2024 OLB for the Albertville Aggies with the capabilities to be a good football player, stated by Coach Browne.
  3. Xavier Havis is a 6’4 205 lb. Class of 2024 WR and OLB for the Aggies portraying great size and strength that serves as a dominate force on the field.