New Bearcat assistant makes Wiregrass Hall of Fame Coach Dan Klages, who has recently been hired by Bainbridge High School Bearcats head football coach Jeff Littleton as a defensive coach and head ninth grade coach, has been inducted into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame in Alabama.

Coach Klages had an outstanding 119-63 head coaching record at three Alabama schools. His 16-year Alabama head-coaching career included one at New Brockton, four at Ashford, which was his alma mater, and 11 at Eufaula.

Klages told Eufaula Alabama Tribune sports writer David Mundee that his Alabama head football-coaching career covered four decades. He said he had a strong pull to get into coaching following his student days at Wallace College.

“As I went through the process of the first couple of semesters of school, I realized that I missed football,” he said. “I had played it since the fourth grade. Looking over the years, I have been lucky to rub shoulders with different people that maybe at the time I didn’t realize what kind of influence they had. But now looking back, they had a tremendous influence on my coaching philosophy.”

While at Eufaula, coach Klages was selected to coach in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game in 2007 and 2012.

After attending Wallace College and Auburn University, coach Klages began his coaching career ay Rabun County Georgia High Scholl where he coached from 1985 to 1987.

He was an assistant varsity football coach, head junior varsity football coach and an assistant boys and girls basketball and baseball coach. In 1988 and 1989, he coached at Screven County Georgia High School before being hired as defensive coordinator, head freshman and middle school coach and  head baseball coach at Eufaula High School.