TCSS Board Accepts Resignation Of Holt High Principal Luther Riley

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa County Board of Education accepted the resignation of Holt High School Principal Luther Riley Tuesday night after only eight months in the position.

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The resignation accepted during the regular meeting on Tuesday was voluntary and submitted over the weekend.

Riley's resignation will be effective March 31. It is unclear at this time who exactly will replace Riley as principal of the school.

Riley first came to Holt High as an assistant principal in September 2020. Prior to his time in Tuscaloosa, he served as an administrator, teacher, and basketball coach at several schools in his home state of Mississippi.

His most-notable coaching stop in Mississippi was as head men's basketball coach of Alcorn State University — an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in Loman, Mississippi.

Riley left midway through his fourth season with the Braves in 2015, citing personal reasons that resulted in the coach not coming back to the program. According to Jackson, Mississippi news station WLBT, his departure from the team coincided with claims of a physical altercation involving a player. The coach referred to those accusations at the time as "completely false."

Prior to being hired at Alcorn State University in 2011, Riley was the youngest high school coach in Mississippi history to win back-to-back basketball state titles, as his Provine High Rams won four state titles in seven appearances.

He would return to the high school ranks the year after his contract with Alcorn State was not renewed, going on to become the head boys basketball coach at Columbus High School in Lowndes County, Mississippi.

Riley won a 6A State championship in his lone season for the Falcons, which represents the school's first in its history. However, he left immediately after the season amid a dispute over incentive pay with school district officials, according to a report from Will Sammon of the Clarion Ledger.

Riley's LinkedIn job history shows he attended graduate school at Mississippi College after his time in Columbus, where he also worked as a curriculum instruction specialist before securing a job as an assistant principal at Meridian High School in July 2019. It would be this job he would leave after a year to come to Holt High School.

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