'Trying to get wins': Former NFL WR Sammie Coates, Gatorade and NFL Films Team Up to Help Break 91-Game Losing Skid

Huntsville, Alabama's Columbia High School hasn't won a football game in nearly a decade: Gatorade, NFL Films and a new head coach will try to help snap the 91-game skid in 2025

"Anytime them lights come on and that scoreboard is keeping score, we trying to get wins." That was the message from Columbia (Alabama) High School head football coach Sammie Coates Jr. to his team at a recent practice. Coates, an NFL veteran and first-year head coach, is teaming with Gatorade and NFL Films to try helping the program end its historic 91-game losing streak. / Gatorade

“Anytime them lights come on and that scoreboard is keeping score, we trying to get wins.”

That was the message from new Columbia High School head football coach Sammie Coates Jr. to his team to his Huntsville, Alabama squad after a recent summer practice. Coates, a longtime NFL veteran, has come to the program as a first-year head coach not caring about the past. Like the team of young men looking up at him, he just wants to win.

A Decade Without a Win

Winning hasn’t been something that has happened at Columbia in quite some time. The program’s last win – a 34-16 shelling of Ardmore (Alabama) – came on Oct. 16, 2015, and is fast approaching its 10th anniversary. That win was the school’s third of the year and came just one week after beating St. John Paul II 62-21. The Eagles dropped their next two games to Huntsville Johnson and Florence Central and haven’t won a game since.

With 91-straight losses to their name, the Eagles hold the unfortunate distinction of having the nation’s longest losing streak in high school football history. Nobody with the Eagles is proud of that, and you won’t find a program that wants to win more than the Eagles do.

Gatorade Steps In to Help

With the help of Coates, Gatorade and NFL Films, the Eagles have some hope in turning things around in 2025.

 "Gatorade isn’t just fueling our team – they’re helping us re-write the script,” Coates said.

A Columbia High School football player kneels at practice with a Gatorade bottle nearby in an effort to stay properly hydrated. / Gatorade

Gatorade was created 60 years ago as a means to help athletes overcome adversity – particularly on the gridiron – and the brand is sticking to that goal by offering to help the Eagles’ program get off the schneid.

The popular sports drink brand has pitched in at Columbia this summer, providing access to its Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) experts for personalized sweat testing and education.

Science and Hydration on the Sidelines

During the preseason, GSSI experts have been on the field with the Eagles, field testing each player’s sweat to gain sweat profiles.

Each day at practice Eagles players visit the Gatorade tent beside the practice field where GSSI staff fits each player with data trackers taped to their forearm. An app allows staff to read the players’ hydration levels. The goal is to keep players healthy, hydrated and, in turn, ready to win.

Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) "Fuel Crew" workers fit players with patches that will track their sweat in an effort to maintain proper hydration and help the team get the most out of practice and games. The staff can read the data in real-time through an app that allows them to properly care for athletes. / Gatorade

“With their support, our guys are training smarter, performing more efficiently and learning what it takes to be great on and off the field,” said Coates, who entered the NFL as a third-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of Auburn the same year Columbia last won a football game.

Coates spent two seasons with the Steelers before also spending time with the Cleveland Browns (2017), Houston Texans (2018) and Kansas City Chiefs (2019 training camp) before taking his pro game to XFL’s Houston Roughnecks (2020), and CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders (2021, 2022) and Edmonton Elks (2023 preseason).

That’s not all Gatorade is doing for the program. It will also provide the squad with science education and advice throughout the 2025 season, which kicks off on Friday at Priceville, which went 2-8 last season but defeated Columbia 68-6 in Week 1.

Gear, Mentorship and a Spotlight

Gatorade will also provide a full season supply of Gatorade sideline equipment and product for the team, while also connecting the Eagles with access to elite Gatorade athletes like Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and learn about the struggles that those players have had to overcome both in life and on the gridiron.

And yet, there’s more. The Eagles are about to hit the silver screen, too. NFL Films and Gatorade have teamed up to film a documentary called ‘All the Reasons Not to Quit – The Columbia HS Story’ and it will premier later this fall.

The poster for Columbia High School's NFL Films documentary, made in conjunction with Gatorade, which will be released later this fall. / Gatorade

Building More Than Wins

Said Kevin Luhrs, Associate Principal Scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute: “For 40 years, GSSI has been turning sports science into real performance gains – and we’re proud to back the Columbia High School football team as they pursue not only their first victory, but multiple victories moving forward. Through sweat testing and education on their hydration and fueling needs, we’re helping these student-athletes understand their bodies a little more so they can be at their absolute best.”

“Gatorade is proud to support and fuel the team’s pursuit of their first victory since 2015 alongside Columbia’s new head football coach and former NFL athlete, Sammie Coates,” Gatorade said in an announcement. 

Columbia High School players gather near the Gatorade GSSI tent during a recent practice to check their hydration levels while a crew from NFL Films documents the moment. / Gatorade

Coates is another player who can attest to the highs and lows of gridiron life. After being named second-team All-SEC in 2014 at Auburn, he went on to the highest level in the NFL and stuck around a while before spending the latter-half of his career trying to get back there.

Now, he’s trying to help young men achieve their dreams, whatever they may be. For now, the dream is of winning – something Coates knows how to do. It may be his first head coaching job, but this isn’t his first foray into coaching at the high school level. He spent 2020-2022 as an assistant at Jensen Beach High School in Florida before jumping to Ohio Northern to coach wide receivers in 2023 and again at Virginia-Wise in 2024 as a receivers coach and community service coordinator.

“This is bigger than football,” Coates said. “It’s about teaching discipline, belief and building something special together as a team, and I’m proud to coach these young men." 

It’s also about getting wins. Most importantly, a win.

That quest continues Friday with the world watching.

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