RUSSELL JACOWAY STADIUM — Last Thursday, with little left to play for other than pride, the Sand Rock Wildcats sent their seniors off in style with a 30-0 win over Spring Garden. They also gave their head coach a historic win – and a bath.

“It's not 200 wins for me, it's 200 wins for Sand Rock High School,” said a still-dripping Russell Jacoway after the game. As he talked to the media, the coach shook hands with several former players who stopped by his office to offer congratulations. “There's been a lot of great kids come through here, and we've had a lot of great administration and boosters.”

One of the first to offer words of praise after the final buzzer sounded was the man who had just lost to Jacoway for the sixth time in seven tries.

“My opinion, he's the best coach in northeast Alabama if not the whole state,” Panthers coach Jason Howard said as he stood near midfield after a friendly post-game chat with Jacoway. “I give him a hard time about being the old man around here, but that old man still kicks all our butts every chance he gets.”

Sand Rock got their kicks in early. After returning the kickoff to the Spring Garden 42-yard line, the Wildcats switched from their usual spread offense to the power-I formation Jacoway ran early in his coaching career. The change of pace caught the Panthers off-guard. Eight plays later, sophomore Chad Thompson scored on a six-yard run, and Matthew Cole added the point-after.

“The huddling and the power-I formation is stuff we did for years here,” Jacoway said, “so this week we went back to that and it helped us a lot, I think, from the aspect of being more physical.”

The ground-pounding continued in the second quarter, when senior fullback Wesley Pruitt rambled for 34 of his 70 yards with 7:08 remaining in the half. Cole's PAT made the score 14-0.

Just as Spring Garden was beginning to get a handle on the Wildcat running game, Jacoway instructed offensive coordinator Steven Chesnut to revert back to Sand Rock's usual, wide-open attack.

With 2:50 remaining, quarterback Drew Norris fired a short pass that senior Phillip Mashburn turned into a 60-yard touchdown. The completion, one of five on the night for Norris in eight attempts, made the score 21-0 at halftime. Norris finished the night with 150 passing yards.

“When we changed pace and went back to the no-huddle, I think that hurt them a little bit,” Jacoway said.

Midway through the third, Cole added a 28-yard field goal. On the Wildcats' next possession, Norris completed a 60-yard touchdown pass to Justin Kyser to close out the scoring and secure a historic win for Jacoway, who admitted he's had his eye on the number 200 for a while.

“It was sort of a goal, because in the eighth grade I knew this was what I wanted to do,” Jacoway said. “And I'm still fired up about coaching. I may not move as fast as I used to, but I'm not planning on going anywhere, anytime soon.”

Practically everyone on the sideline was in on the celebratory soaking – cheerleaders, coaches, and players, as well as several photographers who were roaming the edges of the field documenting Senior Night for the school yearbook. As the game clock ticked off the final seconds, senior lineman Chase Brisendine was among the players who grabbed a full water cooler and began sneaking through their teammates, towards Jacoway.

He may not move as fast as he used to, but Jacoway still managed to dodge most of the 20 gallons of ice water that came at him as the final seconds ticked off the game clock. Behind him, players and assistant coaches laughed, and several hundred Wildcat fans in the bleachers cheered as Terry Teat announced the milestone on the public address system.

Despite missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004, Wildcat players walked off the field proudly. They may have missed one goal, but by being part of a special night for coach Russell Jacoway, they had helped accomplish another.