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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – The Montevallo Bulldogs have a new leader for the future, and he is someone very familiar to the community.

Montevallo High School officially removed Garrett Langer’s interim tag and promoted him to head football coach on Wednesday, April 17.

“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity,” Langer said. “I just really like this community, really enjoy being here, seeing how great it can be, and I’m just excited about the opportunity.”

Langer previously served under former head coach Blake Boren for four years, most recently as co-defensive coordinator for three seasons after coming on as a linebacker coach in 2020.

He is also currently in his first season as the varsity boys soccer head coach and formerly served as the wrestling and varsity girls soccer coach for two seasons each.

Langer was named the interim head coach after Boren resigned from the position on March 22.

Under Langer’s leadership on defense, Montevallo improved each season, going from allowing 35.5 points per game before his arrival in 2019 to 22.1 in his first season in 2020 and 17.4 in 2023.

He was part of a staff led by Boren that went 26-17 with two Class 4A playoff appearances, including a trip to the second round in 2020.

Most recently, Langer helped the Bulldogs finish with a 7-3 record in 2023 where they just narrowly missed out on the playoffs due to a tiebreaker.

Langer is proud of the success that the program has seen under Boren and wants to continue that.

“Just a chance to try to keep doing and build on what we’ve already accomplished here to this point,” Langer said. “Coach Boren’s left this place in a better spot than where he found it and a lot of the hard work is done, but our goal now is to just continue down the same path and try to elevate even more than what it already has been elevated.”

Langer wants to help the program to keep improving both on and off the field as he moves into his new role at the helm.

“On the field, it’s going to be attention to detail,” Langer said. “We’re going to focus on the little things and try to improve the the day-to-day, just preparation, day in and day out of taking those detail-oriented steps to be the best we can every day. And then off the field, we’re going to really focus on character development and try to teach our kids to to live to a high standard on and off the field and in the classroom.”

Langer isn’t the only one receiving a promotion in Montevallo as the entire school will join Class 5A next year with Langer now leading the way on the football field as the Bulldogs embark on a new era.

Langer is excited about the move and believes the program is well-prepared for it.

“Really excited about the chance to move up in classification,” Langer said. “The competition is going to improve, obviously. So we’re going to have to continue to prepare as we have. We’ve run this program at a high level for the last four years anyway, so what’s going to be great for our kids is consistency. We plan to continue down the same path and consistency. Our staff is going to remain intact for the most part, so we have a lot of the same coaches coming back, so there’s not going to be a lot of transition for us. They know us, we know them, so that should help us as we make this transition.”

Langer also wanted to thank the leadership of Montevallo High School and Shelby County Schools for allowing him to take this opportunity.

“The leadership in this county is second to none and I could not be more excited to be able to represent Montevallo High School,” Langer said in a statement. “I am so appreciative to Dr. Brooks, Mr. Hogue, Mr. Bromley, and the Board of Education for this opportunity.”

Langer will remain as the varsity boys soccer head coach through the end of the season after the Bulldogs clinched their second straight area title and will advance to the playoffs. However, his future in that role is up in the air as Montevallo is still looking for coaches.

MHS’ athletic director position will remain vacant at this time as Langer said he will not fill the position that Boren also left vacant.