Fayette County Board of Education approves former Berry football coach Danny Raines as newest coach
Former Berry High School football coach Danny Raines has been hired as Berry's newest head football coach after the Fayette County Board of Education approved the hiring on Tuesday night.
Raines had previously spent 14 seasons at Berry prior to resigning in 2017. Raines' resignation came after he was suspended for the final two games of the Wildcats' regular season in 2016 due to giving a player a commemorative trophy-case football, to which the player and his friends set aflame outside the school and posted videos on the social media app Snapchat.
The football had represented a 40-yard field goal kicked by Jeff Madison, son of Berry town mayor Jimmy Madison, in 1986. Raines gave it to his player following a 44-yard field goal on Oct. 7, 2016 which broke the previous school record. After the videos of the football set aflame circulated around social media, action was quickly taken against Raines, and it was decided Raines' would be suspended for the final two games of Berry's regular season.
At the time, Raines told The Tuscaloosa News he should not have given the player the ball, and that he regretted his actions.
He returned to the field with the Wildcats, coaching them in their first-round playoff game against Cedar Bluff, to which they lost 41-20. Six months later, Raines turned in his letter of resignation to then Berry principal Trevor Kribbs.
After his tenure at Berry, Raines spent three seasons at Headland, going 15-17 overall with a second-round Class 5A playoff appearance in 2018. Raines has spent the last four seasons at Morgan Academy and built a 21-23 record. Most recently, Raines and the Senators are coming off a 1-9 finish in 2023.
Raines has been coaching for 22 years, spending the majority of those at Berry, and has a career record of 138-99. He replaces former Berry coach Hunter Mims, who spent the last three seasons with the Wildcats, going 8-22 during his tenure at Berry with no playoff appearances.
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Anna Snyder covers high school sports and University of Alabama softball and football recruiting for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com. Follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @annaesnyder2
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Danny Raines hired as Berry's football coach following suspension, resignation
