Following a state championship run, the interim tag no longer applies to Ariton baseball coach Bob Pickett following action by the Dale County School Board on Tuesday night that made him the permanent head coach, said school principal Josh Herring.
“The interim tag is lifted off Bob Pickett,” Herring said. “He is now the official head coach.”
The action on Pickett was one of two moves regarding Ariton’s coaching staff. Herring also announced former Charles Henderson standout Allie Singleton was hired as the school’s volleyball head coach, replacing Terry Goodson, who gave up the duties. Singleton was head softball coach and head cross country coach at Charles Henderson this past year.
Goodson will still assist with boys basketball with his son Brett and assist with softball with his daughter Haley.
Pickett was named Ariton’s interim head coach on March 13 following the resignation of coach Logan Dunlap. Pickett then guided the Purple Cats to a 23-8 record during the last two months of the season, capping it with a Class 2A state championship series sweep of Vincent after the Purple Cats won three-game series over talented Pike Liberal Arts and G.W. Long in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
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It was the third state baseball title for Pickett, who directed two state championships at Macon-East Academy and was an assistant on another state title team before coming to Ariton this past year.
“Just his pedigree, the experience he has and me watching him during the course of the season and seeing the relationship he had with the players and the discipline he instilled in the program,” Herring said of why Pickett’s was officially named to the post. “He also had a method to what he wanted to accomplish and you look at the end result. We had great players, no doubt, but they had coaching in there too.
“Also the class he brings to the program was big. He makes sure the kids are accountable and the class they showed to the other team and to the game was evident.”
Ariton was 8-4-1 when Pickett took over. The Purple Cats finished 31-12-1 and earned the school’s first state title in any sport.
Pickett was in his first year at Ariton after being hired as defensive coordinator in football, as an assistant coach in baseball and as a middle school history teacher. He was elevated to interim head baseball coach after the Dunlap’s resignation.
Overall, Pickett now has a career baseball coaching record of 284-112 over 12 seasons, amassing a 261-104 record in 11 years at Macon-East.
A college baseball player at Faulkner, Pickett’s first coaching job came at Pike Liberal Arts where he worked with current Ariton head football coach Steven Kilcrease, who was head football coach at Pike Lib. While at Pike Lib from 2007-11, Pickett was an assistant coach in football and baseball and was part of the Patriots state football championship teams in 2008 and 2009 and with the 2012 state champions in baseball.
Pickett then took the head baseball job at Macon-East in 2013 and held that position until moving this past year to Ariton. He also served as Macon-East’s defensive coordinator in football from 2017-2022.
Singleton, who will teach language arts in the high school and middle school, is no stranger to Ariton. This will be her second coaching/teaching stint at the Ariton campus. She was also at the school from 2019-22, before going to Charles Henderson, her alma mater.
She was an assistant softball coach and English Language Arts teacher during her previous Ariton tenure.
“She is a quality coach, a quality person and a great teacher,” Herring said. “The kids loved her when she was here before. She will be an asset to our female sports.”
As a softball player at Charles Henderson, Singleton earned Dothan Eagle Super 12 honors and was a first team all-state selection before playing in college at Central Alabama Community College and later at Webster University in Missouri.
She began her coaching career as the head softball coach at Clayton High School in Missouri from 2009-11 before returning to Alabama to lead Hooper Academy’s softball team in 2012. She then guided Pike Liberal Arts’ softball team and was an assistant volleyball coach for three years before serving as an assistant softball coach at Charles Henderson from 2016-19 seasons.
She then joined Ariton’s staff in August 2019 and stayed there until this past year when she returned to her alma mater.