Jeter leaving RHS for Auburn
By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
Russellville High School assistant football coach Robert Jeter has accepted an offer to become defensive coordinator and assistant principal at Auburn High School.
The hiring will be made official at next week's school board meeting.
Jeter has been defensive coordinator for the Golden Tigers for the past eight years after coming to Russellville from Daleville High School along with head coach Perry Swindall.
"Coach Jeter has been a real asset to our program," Swindall said. "He and I have been together for 10 years. It's always hard to lose a great football coach, but it's even more difficult when that person is a trusted friend."
Jeter said that being closer to his parents, who live in Tuskegee, and his wife's parents, who live in Dothan, was a key factor in his decision to accept the job at Auburn.
"There was a side of me that wanted to stay here in Russellville," said Jeter, who completed his degree in administration this past summer at Alabama A &M. "I really love working with Coach Swindall and all the other coaches on staff. When you spend as much time together as we do, you become like brothers.
"But the business side of me and the family side knew that it was time to leave this behind and start a new phase of my life. This is a great career opportunity, but it's also an opportunity for me to be closer to my family and for my kids to spend more time with their grandparents."
Jeter and his wife Joyce have three children, all girls.
"Right now, my kids probably see their grandparents three times a year," he said. "We haven't been able to go down for Thanksgiving dinner in six years. That's not really a trip you can make in one day. I haven't gone to church with my parents in about 25 years. I'm getting older, and my parents are getting older. I've been fortunate enough to enjoy a pretty successful career, but you have to make sacrifices when it comes to your family along the way. This is an opportunity to make up for some of that lost time."
As defensive coordinator, Jeter helped the Golden Tigers establish themselves as a perennial powerhouse in Class 5A over the past several years.
"That's something that nobody can ever take away from me," Jeter said. “Two undefeated seasons, making it to the semis six years in a row, making it to the finals three years. That's a real tribute to the guys on this coaching staff and all the work they put in."
Jeter said that being part of a coaching staff not headed up by Swindall for the first time in a decade would take some getting used to.
"I have a lot of respect for Coach Swindall, and I owe him a lot," he said. "I never would have left [Daleville] and come all the way up here with him if I didn't completely trust him and believe in him."
Jeter added that becoming a head coach some day remains one of his goals.
"I do have aspirations of becoming a head coach," he said. "I think having been a defensive coordinator for eight years will help, and this job will give me the opportunity to gain even more leadership experience. That way if a job were to come open at the Class 5A or 6A level, I would be ready for the challenge."
Swindall said that Russellville hopes to fill Jeter's vacancy by next month.
"We've posted his job, and we've already had a lot of really promising inquiries," Swindall said. "There's two ways we could go with it. One would be to hire a coordinator. But I also think we've got some coaches on our staff right now who could coordinate.
