New head football coach brings 148-77 record, 20 years of experience to St. Anne-Pacelli
Two months after the vacancy was created, the St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School football program has a new head coach.
Walter “Smitty” Grider was introduced as the football leader at this Columbus private school during Tuesday’s news conference in the Beck Center. He succeeds Dwight Jones, who announced his retirement in January.
Grider’s 20 years of experience as a head football coach come from the Alabama High School Athletic Association, most recently at Benjamin Russell High School.
Smitty Grider’s coaching record
After working as an assistant coach for 23 years, including at Opelika and Smiths Station, Grider has compiled a 148-77 record as a head coach:
- 2005, Central-Coosa, 5-5
- 2006-13, Beauregard, 64-28
- 2014-17, Park Crossing, 38-9
- 2018, Hazel Green, 4-7
- 2019-21, Dothan, 14-16
- 2022-24, Benjamin Russell, 23-12.
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Grider to our Viking family,” St. Anne-Pacelli Athletics Director Calvin Thomas said in the school’s news release. “He is dedicated to fostering excellence both on and off the field. His vision for the Vikings Football program aligns with St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School’s core values of faith, honesty, loyalty and respect; and his leadership, experience and dedication to student-athletes make him the perfect fit to lead our football program into the future.”
Grider, whose “Smitty” nickname comes from Smith being his middle name, said in the news release, “My family and I are excited to be joining the St. Anne-Pacelli family. Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming; we know we have found the right home. I’m looking forward to meeting the players and coaches and getting to work.”
July 1 will be Grider’s first official day as St. Anne-Pacelli’s head football coach, but players and parents can meet him during a welcoming event March 11, starting at 6 p.m., in the Beck Center.
Why St. Anne-Pacelli hired Smitty Grider as new head football coach
Thomas told the Ledger-Enquirer “10 to 15” candidates applied for the position and “about five” of them were interviewed. During the news conference, Thomas said he was “blown away” by Grider in the initial interview. Thomas sensed Grider’s priorities matched the “morals and principles” of St. Anne-Pacelli.
“I knew that he was a good fit for our kids, and he aligned with what we want to do and where we are headed as a school, as a community,” Thomas said.
And in the second interview, this time with the selection committee, Grider “blew them away” as well, Thomas said.
Beyond his impressive resume, winning record and leadership skills, Grider stood out among the candidates by showing his “passion and energy for helping kids” and his ideas for “turning our boys into men,” Thomas said.
Jones led the Vikings to a 46-22 record in six seasons at St. Anne-Pacelli, including 5-6 last year. The highlight of his tenure came in 2022, when the Vikings finished 12-1 and won the program’s first state championship, beating Stratford Academy 10-0 in the Georgia Independent Athletic Association Class AAAA title game.
“Typically, the programs that I’ve taken over as a head coach have either been brand new, didn’t exist before or in disarray, and that’s not the case coming here,” Grider said during the news conference. “Coach Jones has done a great job over the last six years that he’s been here, won a state championship two years ago, and to come into a program that’s already established and it’s already successful, it’s something that’ll be a new challenge for me. … I just hope that we can continue the tradition that’s been built here and build on it and take it to even more success in the future.”
Why Smitty Grider applied for the St. Anne-Pacelli head football coaching job
During the interviews with Thomas and the selection committee, Grider said, he was impressed with “just how family-oriented the place is and how welcoming everybody’s been throughout the process. It’s just really heartwarming to come be a part of a program that really puts family first. … I want to finish my career here. However long that is that they’ll have me, that’s how long I plan to be here.”
Grider said he was familiar with St. Anne-Pacelli through his years coaching in Lee County and having some former Vikings on his staff at Beauregard. He also was attracted to St. Anne-Pacelli as a school where he could more openly express his religion.
“I’ve been in public schools for the last 30-plus years,” he said, “and to be able to come somewhere that puts Christian values at the forefront, that was part of what I was looking for as well.”
Smitty Grider’s message to the St. Anne-Pacelli football players
Grider doesn’t want the St. Anne-Pacelli football players to feel threatened by the changes coming to the program.
“When you come into a new program, there will be changes, and then the challenge for kids is to know the changes are just because different coaches do things different,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that they were done wrong before.
“It’s going to be different, and the big challenge for all of us will be getting to know each other — them getting to know my personality, the way I coach, the way I talk to people, the way I handle kids. That’ll be an adjustment for all of us.”
Smitty Grider’s expectations for first season at St. Anne-Pacelli’s head football coach
Grider said he expects the Vikings to reach their potential.
“I don’t know exactly what we have and what the players are capable of, but we want to get the most out of it,” he said. “So whatever that looks like is them being at their best, whether it be winning a state championship or winning four games. Whatever is their best, that’s what we’re going to try to achieve here.
“… Handling success is important, but also handling failure, and that’s part of athletics, something that kids have to adjust to and have to learn to handle the right way. But from what I see, I think we can have a great program here.
“That’s why I came. That’s what was attractive about it, the opportunity to win and win at a high level. My goal for our program is to be the standard that everybody else wants to be, and so that’s what we’ll strive for every day.”
What schemes Smitty Grider will implement on offense and defense at St. Anne-Pacelli
Grider prefers to use a spread offense to get the ball to athletes in space.
“Play with a tempo, and that’ll have to be adjusted a little bit,” he said. “Playing with fewer players, just how fast we can go offensively, we like to play multiple personnel groupings and get a lot of people involved in the game.”
Key to that equation is a quality starting quarterback.
“This day and age, if you don’t have that guy, it’s hard to win,” he said. “And so that’ll be one of our first goals, to identify who our quarterback is going to be and what he’s capable of.
“… We like to throw it and run it 50/50. That’s perfect world, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to win.”
On defense, Grider favors multiple fronts.
“The biggest thing that I want us to be known for is being a physical team and having a team that plays like their hair is on fire,” he said. “We run to the football on defense, and we’re physical when we get there. That’s important.
“I want teams, when they finish playing us, whether we win or they win, to say, ‘Man, we don’t really want to play those guys anymore.’”
Why Smitty Grider left Benjamin Russell
Grider and Benjamin Russell “mutually agreed to part ways,” The Outlook in Alexander City reported in December.
The Outlook quoted Alexander City Schools superintendent Jose Reyes as saying, after meeting with Grider, principal Shannon Benefield “has indicated that it is his recommendation that we move in a different direction, and as the superintendent, I support that recommendation.”
Benjamin Russell qualified for the state playoffs in each of its three seasons with Grider as the head coach. After reaching the third round in 2023, the Wildcats went 5-6 and lost in the first round last year.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 2:45 PM.
