ACS brings in Paul Woodruff and Kenny Chaffin

This article by Druw Giamalva first appeared in The Sand Mountain Reporter on June 14, 2025.

The Albertville City School Board held a special called board meeting on Thursday evening to announce multiple new hires. Among the new hires were two familiar names in Marshall County, as Paul Woodruff will return as the new head softball coach for the Lady Aggies, and Kenny Chaffin will join Albertville as an assistant athletic director and head coach of the Albertville Middle School football team. 

Woodruff previously coached Albertville from 2004 to 2014, where he led the Lady Aggies to five Area Championships. Woodruff led the 2014 Albertville Lady Aggies to a Final Four appearance. 

  “It feels good to be back. I want to get this program back to where we were before. That is the only reason for why I am coming back. I want to see this program excel as it was before,” Woodruff said. 

Chaffin comes to Albertville after a 24-year stint as the head baseball coach for the Guntersville Wildcats. The Wildcats saw a lot of success under Chaffin, as they won multiple Area Championships and a State Championship in 2012. 

  “I am super excited about this opportunity. It was just about moving forward. The people that are here, I have just been familiar with. There are a lot of different people here and I am from here. I have family members that are still students here, that goes a long way too. I just have a lot of connections here at Albertville. It feels like home,” Chaffin said. 

Announcing the arrival of Woodruff and Chaffin was Albertville High School Principal Steven Hudgins. 

“I want to start by announcing coach Kenny Chaffin will be joining us. Most of you probably know Coach Chaffin, as he is coming to us from Guntersville,” Hudgins said. “He is going to be filling multiple roles. The first is going to be a much-needed role in drivers ed. That is something we noticed that we needed at the end of the year. He is able to fill that role and do it at a top-notch job. He is also moving into the role as our middle school head football coach. He brings many years of wisdom in that, and we are very excited for our young kids to get him. He will also be a part of our athletic department as well as an assistant athletic director. We are excited to add him in that capacity to help Dr. [Vohn] Enloe and to continue to add people of character into our athletic department.”

“We have Coach Woodruff. Coach Woodruff is a familiar face, as he is coming back to us as the head softball coach. Coach Woodruff was the softball coach from 2004 to 2014. He had a 10-year span here and when we did the interview, there were still Regional trophies there from 2009, 2012 and 2014. He was the head coach of all of those. We are excited to bring back Coach Woodruff,” Hudgins said. 

  “I worked with Kenny up at the middle school. He is a great leader. He loves the kids, but he is also very organized and runs a great football program. He was a heck of a baseball coach for 24 years, but he is glad to step out of that role and step into a new one. We are so blessed to have him. Coach Woodruff is a phenomenal coach who came into the interview prepared. He was someone we wanted to bring back. He is going to turn this thing around,” Enloe said. 

  “I am so excited to have both Coach Woodruff and Coach Chaffin. When you say the Woodruff name here in Albertville, he is a legend for the softball program. I think he has been wanting to get back in it. He is motivated and ready to go. I have known Kenny now for about 25 years, as he was an assistant coach of mine at Guntersville when I was at the middle school. It is kinda what we have been talking about that we want quality people in our schools. That is certainly what we are doing here at Albertville City Schools,” Dr. Bart Reeves said.