The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
David Reeves Finds Solace in Journey to UAB
4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
The coaching bug hit David Reeves at an early age, partly because the UAB defensive line coach recognized his playing days were numbered.
“I knew I wanted to be a part of athletics somehow,” Reeves said. “I’d rather get paid a million dollars to play, but you just look in the mirror and say ‘That’s probably not going to happen.’”
Turns out, he’s done just fine while making a successful living during a coaching career that included high school stops in three different states and landed him in Birmingham when Bill Clark assembled his first UAB coaching staff.
His first college coaching assignment came at a time when he was contemplating making an intriguing move. At the time, he had established himself as the defensive coordinator at Athens High School in north Alabama. He was contemplating a job offered to him by Hoover High head coach Rush Prospt and reached out to a coaching friend – then University of Alabama secondary coach Chris Ball – for advice.
“I didn’t know what to do,” said Reeves, who grew up in north Alabama. “We had some pretty good football teams at Athens through that time. But Hoover was the mecca of (high school) football at the time in Alabama.”
When he asked Ball for advice, the UA assistant coach had a question of his own.
“Do you still want to coach college football one day?” Ball asked.
Reeves said he did. Ten minutes later, Reeves accepted a job as a UA graduate assistant. He worked with the cornerbacks during his two seasons in Tuscaloosa. It wasn’t a paid position but it was the start to his college coaching career. The chance to work under veteran defensive coordinator Joe Kines, who Reeves said “knows more football in the end of his pinky finger than I’ll ever know,” was especially beneficial.
From there, he went to Southern Arkansas, where he served two of his five seasons as the program’s defensive coordinator, and UT Martin before joining Bill Clark at Jacksonville State University in 2013. His defensive line led the Ohio Valley Conference in sacks with 52 during that season.
Reeves followed Clark to UAB in 2014 and directed a defensive line that compiled nearly as many sacks (34) as the Blazers managed in the previous two seasons (38). He also sat in the meeting room in December of 2014 when the coaches and players were told the program was being shut down.
“It really was difficult,” Reeves said. “You’re just never sure in this game. Now, you don’t expect a program to get shut down, that’s never anywhere in your mind. It was really, really tough. I believed the whole time that I wanted to be with Coach Clark, because I believed we were going to do something special, no matter where we were together.”
Reeves had opportunities for other coaching jobs but he remained patient. When the announcement to reinstate football was made in the summer, Reeves was ready to begin working. Instead of being overwhelmed by the task ahead, he reacted with enthusiasm.
He thought back to his time at UT Martin, where he was part of a staff that led the first team in school history to beat a Football Bowl Subdivision team. He reflected back to his year at Jacksonville State, where he was part of the first team at the school to win a Division I playoff game. He took the short visit back to his first season at UAB when the Blazers reached bowl eligibility for the first time since 2004.
Now, he thought, he has the opportunity to be part of one of the great comeback stories in NCAA history.
“You always like it when you can stamp your product. Somebody is going to pick up the history book one day, like my children, and they can say ‘First time it ever happened in NCAA history, my dad was on that staff.’ It’s another small sense of accomplishment.”
Reeves also relishes the thought that both of his sons – have expressed interest in eventually following their father into coaching. Rhett spent the 2014 season serving as a student assistant at UAB and is now attending Auburn.
“I don’t think there is a more fulfilling profession,” Reeves said of coaching. “What a great way to help young people stay on a path or help them find a path. It’s why it’s such a good fit. We’re selling the family around here. We’re not a business, we’re not a football factory, Coach (Clark) isn’t a CEO, we’re not department heads. The way coach wants it done and the way we believe, is we got to get into the total person. It really helps in that building thing. It’s an exciting, fulfilling thing.”
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