Scott Rials was relieved of his head football coaching duties at Baldwin County High School Thursday morning, Nov. 16, after four years at the post.

Baldwin County closed the 2023 season with a 43-13 win over the Robertsdale Golden Bears, who had their head coach relieved of his duties just four weeks prior. Similar to the Golden Bears’ Kyle Stanford, Rials will stay on as the Tigers’ athletic director and will be part of the search to find Baldwin County’s next head football coach.

Rials wrapped up his 26th year as a head coach this season and now owns a 185-111 overall record with a 21-17 mark in the playoffs after his time with the Tigers where he served as the school's 36th head coach according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society.

The 2011 state champion coach logged a 14-27 record at Baldwin County with one postseason appearance in 2021, when they finished 8-4 overall, which served as the Tigers’ first since 2007.

After Baldwin County's season-ending win, Rials expressed his excitement for the younger group of Tiger football players making their way up the ranks.

“I can say we’re a team on the way up,” Rials said on Nov. 3. “We’ve got a really good freshman class and some good sophomores and juniors so we’re looking forward to really raising the bar a whole lot more this next year.”

Rials took over the Baldwin County coaching job after six years under current Elberta head coach Nathan McDaniel who registered a 31-29 overall record. With the 2021 trip to the playoffs, Rials became the first Tiger coach to earn a postseason victory since current Faith Academy head coach Jack French did so on Nov. 9, 2001.

After his career started with six years (1998-2003) at South Montgomery Academy in the Alabama Independent School Association, Rials moved to the Alabama High School Athletic Association and took over at Elba. In nine years at the helm of those Tigers (2004-2012), their third straight region championship eventually led to a Blue Map.

Rials then spent two years at Satsuma (2013-2014) before five years at Luverne (2015-2019), where he ended that tenure with his fifth region title.