Major Lane kept the same philosophy at each stop along his personal coaching carousel, and it has landed him among the best to walk a sideline in Alabama.

Lane, a coaching fixture at Pike County and Goshen High Schools for over 30 years, will be inducted in to the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in March. The ceremony will take place at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery.

During his career, Lane won games and titles in bunches, but he is quick to deflect credit to his players.

“It is a statement about what the kids did,” said Lane. “Every team I coached we used the same system of doing things. We trusted God, worked hard and did our best. The young men I was able to coach always bought in to the process of how we wanted to do things, and we were able to be very successful together.”

During 10 highly successful seasons, Lane led the Goshen Eagles boy’s basketball team to a 187-46 record and a handful of appearances in the state tournament, including trips to the final four in 1996 and 2001. Before going to Goshen, Lane served six years as head basketball coach at Pike County and three years at Ariton.

As a young boy, Lane wanted to join the military, but that all changed after getting the opportunity to take part in the recreation leagues with a family member.

“My first love was football, and my brother was a coach in the pee-wee league,” said Lane. “I got the opportunity to play and coach for him and that’s where I got the determination to coach. It just spilled over to me. I had plans to join the Air Force, but the Good Lord had other plans for me.”

Although known mostly as a basketball coach, Lane knows his way around the gridiron as well. While at Pike County, Lane served as the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator under iconic head coach Wayne Grant.

Lane helped lead the Bulldogs to back-to-back football state championships in 1988 and 1989. Lane is excited to join several of his colleagues in the Hall of Fame.

“This is truly a humbling experience,” Lane said. “I have had so many teachers and friends that have helped me along they, and now I will join them. To be a part of a group that includes people I look up to, like Tony Stallworth at Brantley and Richard Robertson at Andalusia and Johnny Dunn, is amazing. God has a plan, and it all worked out.”

Lane graduated from Robert E. High School in 1976 and Alabama State University in 1981. He earned his masters at Troy University and his EDS and a second masters in Theology from Birmingham Theological Seminary.

Throughout his 30-plus year career, Lane, an ordained minister and pastor at Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Troy, said he valued the relationships he had with his players and fellow coaches more than the wins and losses.

“It’s not so much about the victories,” said Lane. “It is more about the people we have embraced and people we have helped along the way. That is what I will remember and cherish most, and that is what my life is all about.”

The induction ceremony will take place March 17 in Montgomery.