Opp native Jamey DuBose said Thursday night he tries to instill the same values and trust in his players as he had growing up in the “City of Opportunity.”

DuBose, a 1988 OHS graduate, has worked his way through the ranks and has found success as a football coach from the Gulf Coast to the Tennessee Valley.

DuBose is most famous for his tenure as head coach of the Prattville Lions, where he won two state championships as head coach and two as an assistant coach. He is currently the head coach of the Florence Falcons, a program he has grown from 50 players to nearly 170.

“Tubby Hall was one of my first coaches and he taught me a lot about life in general,” he said. “Vernon McBride had a lot to do with where I was going.”

DuBose has had the opportunity to play football throughout the nation, even having his Prattville Lions featured on national television.

Despite all of his successes, DuBose said he’s always proud to say he’s from Opp.

“This is where it all began,” he said.

DuBose said his journey has been hard work, which is something he builds his programs on.

DuBose said he also learned a lot growing up from his father, Harold DuBose, about helping others.

“I played baseball under my dad,” he said. “My dad always went out of his way to make sure others had what they needed and gave them rides.”

It’s the attitude he learned from his father of helping others that has propelled DuBose in his career.

“I signed more football scholarships than any other coach,” he said. “Many of whom would have never been able to go to college.”

Thus far, DuBose has helped more than 84 student athletes play at the next level, with a college scholarship. Nine of those play in the SEC.

“I have always stressed education,” he said. “These are things I learned in Opp.”

DuBose said he tries to develop a hometown atmosphere on the sidelines wherever he goes.

“My wife is on the sidelines, my dad is, and my boys are,” he said. “Most of the boys I coach don’t have daddies and their mommas are working two to three jobs.”

DuBose reflected on a player, who was always late for practice, and he always received running as punishment for tardiness.

“I asked him, ‘Why can’t you be on time?,” DuBose recalled. “He said to me, ‘Coach, I’ll run every time if I have to because I have to get my brothers and sisters on the bus.’”

DuBose said he makes it a practice to listen to his players.

“So many of our youth need us to listen,” he said. “I hug necks. I walk around. We have two chaplains. We stay within in the rules, but we do what’s right. Those values go back to this community.”

DuBose was honored Thursday night as the Opp and Covington County Chamber of Commerce’s “Opp’s Own.”