Matthew Forester named Briarwood Christian’s head football coach
Birmingham, AL – The Briarwood Christian Lions have a new leader on the gridiron. The Shelby County program named current defensive coordinator Matthew Forester the program’s seventh head football coach Wednesday evening.
Forester replaces legendary Lions head coach Fred Yancey who announced his retirement in November after leading the program to a 278-95 record, sixteen region titles, 26 consecutive postseason appearances and three state championships over 29 years.
Excited for the future of our football program as Coach Matthew Forester was named head coach today!! pic.twitter.com/yglrxj10HD
— Briarwood Athletics (@BCS_Lions) December 27, 2018
The Lions are coming off a 9-3 campaign in 2018.
Forester closed out his 13th season as an assistant at Briarwood, helping lead the Lions to the second round of the AHSAA 5A playoffs in 2018. The BCS graduate has served as the Lions defensive coordinator for the past eight seasons.
During his playing career at Briarwood, Forester, an All-State linebacker, set a single-season state record for tackles in route to a 3A state title in 1998. He continued his playing career at Samford University.
Candidates spanning 10 states were considered for the post by Briarwood superintendent Stephen Steiner. The candidate pool was vetted by former BCS standouts Tim Castile (current Thompson Warriors assistant), Joe Craddock (current University of Arkansas offensive coordinator), Barrett Trotter (current Auburn University offensive analyst), former Mountain Brook and University of South Alabama head coach Joey Jones, former Clay-Chalkville head coach Jerry Hood, former Vestavia Hills assistant Bruce Evans and current Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager.
