Alabama high school football: Fyffe coach Paul Benefield wins 300th game at school

There are many records left to break at Fyffe, but coach Paul Benefield found one to bring down on Friday night.

Benefield crossed the 300 win mark with a 46-0 win over Ider to close out a perfect season in region play. Benefield becomes only the second coach to cross the 300 win mark at one school, and he was already one of seven coaches to do so overall in the state of Alabama. Out of active coaches, he only trails Terry Curtis at UMS-Wright and Danny Horn at Central-Clay County for most wins in the history of Alabama high school football.

"It's hard to understand, it crept up on me. I knew that we won a lot of games in the last few years. You say it all with if only two people had done it, I'm in an elite club and I don't know how I got in it. Like I said it's blessing, lot's of factors," Benefield told the Gadsden Times.

Benefield, a Fyffe alumni, started his career at Sylvania in 1992. He spent five seasons there, going 45-11 including two 12-wins seasons. For the last 27 years he has been the leader of the Red Devils, going 300-45. He has led them to 19 region titles and six state titles (2014, '16, '18, '19, '20, '22). All six titles have come in undefeated seasons. During the 2021 season, his nation-leading win streak ended at 51 games.

This season, Fyffe is 8-1, the only loss to Geraldine in Week 1. It finished 6-0 in the Class 2A, Region 7. Last week, during a win over Pisgah, running back Logan Anderson set a Fyffe school record with 364 rushing yards. He also became the first back at Fyffe to run for 1,000 yards in three straight seasons.

The win gives Benefield 338 for his career. He will try for win 339 in the season finale against his old school, Sylvania, next Friday to close out the regular season. Benefield credited his players, current and past, for their hard work that they have put in over the years.

"I hope they all would be proud to be a part of this," Benefield said. "If I could call them all, I would but that would take me two or three months. I just hope they are proud of the accomplishments that we have made, we being me and them together, all the coaches. A lot of kids went into this."

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Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports and Jacksonville State athletics for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Fyffe coach Paul Benefield becomes second coach to win 300 games at one school