CULLMAN, Ala. – Thursday, March 12, saw legendary head basketball coach Tim Willoughby retire after 23 years. He coached five different teams, finished with 371 wins and had a tremendous impact on so many kids’ lives not only on the court, but in the classroom as well, working as a math teacher for 39 years.
He started his coaching career at Curry during the 1993-94 season, and during his three years there, he went 52-34 including a 21-7 record in his final season. He went to Sparkman to start out the 1996-97 season. He was there for six years and finished with 20 or more wins four times, including a 26-8 record and 28-4 mark in his first two years as their head coach. After taking a year off, he coached at Hanceville for a couple of seasons, and one of the players that he coached was former Hanceville head coach Stephen Chandler.
He took almost a decade off before returning to coaching at Cold Springs, where things really took off, to start out the 2013-14 campaign. In his 10 years as the Eagle coach, he finished with six 20-win seasons, and a pair of county championships in 2014 and 2021. He also took home several area championships during his time at Cold Springs as well. He closed out his coaching career at Holly Pond, and the Broncos finished runner-up to Good Hope in the 2025 Cullman County Basketball Tournament.
No matter where he coached, he carried a fiery energy that not many younger coaches possess. He collected eight area championships, seven county titles, and he was the ASWA Coach of the Year in 2A and 5A. In 1997, he finished runner-up in the state tournament, and is immortalized in the Cullman County Sports Hall of Fame.
