Soul of 78: Michael Bridges
Head Basketball Coach, Dora High School
Words by Terrell Manasco | Image by Ryan McGill
Growing up in Cordova, the Dora Bulldogs and Parrish Tornadoes were the Blue Devils’ sworn rivals. Nobody one liked them, including Michael Bridges.
But a funny thing happened in 1983. After playing sports through high school, Bridges headed to the University of West Alabama (UWA) on a football scholarship. His roommate was a Parrish graduate named Paul Patrick. The two swapped stories about their schools and eventually became best friends. That experence taught Bridges a valuable lesson. “I thought, ‘These schools are similar; they have the same kind of pride in their town and in football,” he says.
After earning his education degree from UWA in 1989, Bridges worked for the Department of Human Resources in Jasper and later did social work at the Walker County Health Department.
Many successful people credit at least one person as their inspiration. For Bridges, it was his high school football coach, Tim O’Neil. “He would invite some of the older kids to come watch a film during a break in class,” Bridges says. “I saw things they were doing that made me want to consider coaching.”
In the summer of 1995, Bridges got a call from O’Neil, who was now head football coach at Dora. O’Neil asked him to come be the assistant football and head baseball coach there.
After coaching at Dora from 1995-2001, Bridges headed to Parrish, where he was reminded of the lesson he learned in college. “I saw firsthand, these guys are just like Cordova, just different colors,” he says.
Two years later, the former Blue Devil led the Tornadoes to a state championship victory, an experience he calls the highlight of his coaching career. “When that team came together, I told (Head) Coach Gay, ‘This team is special, how they stuck together and communicated with the coaches,’” Bridges recalls. “We ran off 13 in a row, beating American Christian for the state championship. That’s one of my proudest moments as a coach.”
Bridges later coached at Aliceville (football), Florala, Hillcrest-Evergreen, Walker, and Carbon Hill. In 2010, he returned to Dora as head basketball coach. He says he enjoys seeing kids come together to reach their goals. “I tell my players I want to help them experience what I did, from competing against each other to becoming brothers.”
Bridges has coached at eight different high schools in 27 years, including two former rivals. He says he loves Dora and doesn’t want to be anywhere else. “I’ve helped over 20 kids go to the next level (college), some that weren’t even Dora kids,” he says. “Many went on to coach. That's a good feeling.” 78