'A special individual': Winfield's Brad Cunningham awarded AHSAA Making A Difference Award

For nearly his entire life, Winfield's Brad Cunningham has dedicated his life to help those around him.

Last week at the annual AHSAA/AHSADCA Championship Coaches Award Banquet, Cunningham was recognized for all he has done for others, receiving the Class 3A AHSAA Making A Difference Award.

"It's an honor, it's a privilege," Cunningham told The Tuscaloosa News . "I don't know that it's deserved, but it's definitely an honor."

The AHSAA Making A Difference Award was first established in 2011 and is presented to seven individuals each year in each of the AHSAA's seven classifications. The award "recognizes individuals who go beyond their normal duties as a coach, teacher, or administrator to make a positive impact in their schools and communities," per the AHSAA.

"If you've ever been around his or talked to him, it's always about everyone else, not him, and that's one of the major reasons we are lucky to have him," said Winfield athletic director George Hennicke, who has worked alongside Cunningham for 24 years. "He does a great job not just from coaching standpoint but from the teacher standpoint and making a difference with all of the kids."

Cunningham is a native of Winfield, growing up about 200 yards from where the current high school is located.

"Where the school sits now used to be a cow pasture," Cunningham said. "I tell everybody that was my playground and then they built a school here, so now that's where I work. It's kind of I guess a full circle deal for me."

Cunningham played football and basketball for the Pirates before graduating in 1983. After graduation, Cunningham worked for five years in an oil field before eventually going back to school to get into teaching much to the influence of his father, the late Olan Cunningham, a former teacher and coach at Red Bay turned State Farm Agent.

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"(My dad) was big on helping people," Cunningham said. "I guess I'd say it's just kind of a natural thing, emulating what I've seen my whole life."

Cunningham has been in education for 29 years, with 26 of those have been at his alma mater. He spent a year at Jacksonville State then two at Westbrook Christian School in Gadsden working alongside John Croyle, the founder of the Big Oak Ranch.

Cunningham also spent time as a graduate assistant at the University of North Alabama working directly under coach Bill Hyde. There, Cunningham worked alongside fellow graduate assistant Alvin Briggs, the current AHSAA director who is stepping down from his role in September.

Briggs, Cunningham said, is one of the six people that has had an influence on his life, alongside his father, Olan, Croyle, Hyde and current Winfield coaches Steve Reaves and Zac Wakefield. Three were in attendance to watch Cunningham receive the Making A Difference award last week — Croyle, Reaves and Wakefield — along with members of his family.

Cunningham teaches health, PE and drivers education at Winfield and has spent time coaching nearly every sport from track and field to football to basketball. Most recently, he coached the girls basketball team at Winfield for the 2023-24 season and was involved with track and field.

Cunningham married his wife, Shelley, a former Alabama women's basketball player, in 1996. The two share son Trey, 25, who is a 2017 graduate of Winfield and still holds the AHSAA record in 110-meter hurdles. Trey went onto run track and field at Florida State University and was an NCAA champion at the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, then went onto be a silver medalist in the same event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

"In small towns, you talk about community and the families that are anchors in the community," Hennicke said. "The Cunningham's have always been that. They are one of those. They're always involved with everybody.

"Brad is a special individual. In what he does for everyone else outside of the school is just great."

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: 'A special individual': Winfield's Brad Cunningham awarded AHSAA Making A Difference Award