David Koonce

Fresh off another championship with the @ArizonaRattlers, Kevin Guy is heading back to his #D2FB roots. His son Kody plays quarterback at @FHSUFootball, putting the former @uwa_football Tiger back around the level that helped shape his career. More on his career and D2 roots: Kevin Guy has spent more than three decades in professional football, but he still talks about West Alabama as the place where the foundation was laid. That foundation has carried him a long way. He just coached the Arizona Rattlers to another championship, adding to a career that has made him the winningest head coach in arena and indoor football history. He is now the Rattlers’ president and head coach, responsible for far more than what happens on the sideline. Long before the championships and front-office responsibilities, he was a kid in Bessemer, Alabama, paying attention to people who seemed to understand football better than everyone else. He remembers rushing home from church on Sundays to watch Bear Bryant’s coaches show. He was about eight years old when Bryant was asked why he had remained successful for so long. Bryant’s answer was that he had been willing to change with the times. “That stuck with me,” Guy said. “As I have gotten older, I still feel I can relate to my players.” Bo Jackson was another influence. Jackson grew up in Bessemer, too. “I grew up watching him play. I wanted to be him.” His family later moved, and he finished at Shelby County High School in Columbiana, where his speed quickly became his calling card. “Speed opened every door I walked through. Whether it was in high school, college or professionally, I was always the fastest guy on the team.” He visited Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Samford and Chattanooga during the recruiting process. West Alabama was the school that offered him a scholarship. “Well, I guess I wasn’t good enough to play Division I. But I did have a great opportunity to play college football at West Alabama.” He played wide receiver and cornerback for the Tigers. Playing both ways out of necessity also gave him an opportunity to learn the game from both sides, something that became increasingly valuable once he started coaching. “Still today, I call plays on both sides of the ball. I don’t know how you can coach one side of the ball and not understand the other side. Coaching is no different than being a player. You have to develop your game. I never wanted to miss out on the opportunity to take a job, so I learned both sides.” West Alabama also put him in the GSC during one of its strongest eras. “I played in the toughest conference in the country in the early ’90s. The Gulf South Conference. Every year I was there, the national champion came out of our conference. Week to week was a grind.” That grind extended beyond the competition. Fall camp brought three-a-day practices in the Alabama heat. “The humidity in Alabama will knock the breath out of you. You had to be mentally tough to get through it.” More than three decades later, that mentality remains part of what he looks for in players. “So today when we recruit, we look for kids that have a certain mentality. Talent will only take you so far. What separates the players at the next level is their mentality in how they approach the game.” Yet when he was asked what stands out most about his time at West Alabama, his answer had nothing to do with football. “Relationships!” “We were part of a brotherhood that has lasted a lifetime. I can’t tell you how many times the University of West Alabama and my teammates have been there for me over the years, and vice versa. I learned so many life lessons during that era of my life.” Those relationships and lessons became the foundation for the opportunities that came next. “West Alabama gave me the chance to play college football. That opened doors for me to sign in the CFL and arena football, build relationships, start coaching and begin a career.” A career built from that opportunity: West Alabama, 1991-95: Played wide receiver and cornerback for the Tigers. The university inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015. Coming out of college, he signed with the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League. The franchise folded, leaving him looking for another opportunity. One of his college coaches had taken a job in the Arena Football League and talked him into giving the indoor game a shot. He went to a combine at the Senior Bowl and ran the fastest 40-yard dash that day. His speed and ability to play both wide receiver and defensive back made him a natural fit for Arena Football. He went on to play four seasons in the Arena Football League with the Minnesota Fighting Pike, New Jersey Red Dogs and Orlando Predators. He finished his AFL career with 136 tackles, seven interceptions, a forced fumble and a touchdown. His final season brought him to Orlando and reunited him with his good friend Jay Gruden. The two had come up together as players in the Arena Football League before their careers eventually moved into coaching. Gruden was already one of the biggest names in Arena Football League history. He won four ArenaBowls as a quarterback with the Tampa Bay Storm, earned league MVP honors in 1992 and ArenaBowl MVP honors in 1993 before later winning two more ArenaBowls as Orlando’s head coach. In 1999, Gruden traded for him, bringing him over from New Jersey to a Predators team coming off an ArenaBowl championship. He helped Orlando get back to the title game that season, reaching ArenaBowl XIII before falling to the Albany Firebirds. He still has a little fun with what he brought to that 1999 team. “I was the missing piece.” Their relationship would become important again as his coaching career developed. New Jersey and Florida, 2000-01: Began his coaching career as defensive coordinator of the Red Dogs and became interim head coach for the final four games of the 2000 season. He spent the following year as defensive coordinator of the Florida Bobcats. af2, 2002-05: Led the Tennessee Valley Vipers to three consecutive playoff appearances and was named 2003 af2 Coach of the Year. He later took the Rio Grande Valley Dorados to the National Conference Championship Game. He left af2 with 52 victories, an average of 13 wins per season and the most coaching wins in league history, and was later inducted into the af2 Hall of Fame. In 2006, he joined the San Jose SaberCats as defensive coordinator. San Jose reached the American Conference Championship Game in each of his two seasons and won ArenaBowl XXI in 2007. Gruden was instrumental in helping him get the opportunity to take over the Arizona Rattlers in 2008. He added general manager responsibilities the following year. What followed became one of the most successful runs in arena and indoor football history. Arizona reached four consecutive ArenaBowls from 2011 through 2014, winning three straight from 2012 through 2014. The Rattlers later won the 2017 United Bowl, another IFL championship in 2024 and their latest championship in 2026. The most recent title gave Arizona its eighth franchise championship, his sixth as Rattlers head coach and seventh championship as a coach overall. Arizona has reached the championship game 10 times in the last 17 years. In July 2024, career victory No. 262 made him the winningest head coach in arena and indoor football history. For all that winning, one of the most important decisions of his career involved an opportunity he did not take. There were chances to leave Arizona, including possibilities in the NFL and Canada. He stayed. “I chose to stay in Arizona and build something. I wanted to keep my family together and create a life that worked for all of us. I like having some control over my own fate and my schedule, and there’s something to be said for the quality of life that comes with that. Arizona gave me the opportunity to grow professionally while also being present for my family, and that balance has meant a lot to me.” Arizona allowed him to keep growing professionally without continually uprooting Cathy and their children. It also gave him an organization he could help build from the roster to the front office, with owner Ron Shurts at the top. “No matter what level of football you’re at, everything starts at the top,” Guy said. “You have to have support from the top down. That structure exists at the Arizona Rattlers. Players come here to develop and continue to add value for themselves. We have created a culture of winning.” His work has continued to expand. Along with serving as Rattlers president and head coach, he and Cathy have ownership interests in the Tucson Sugar Skulls of the IFL and the Birmingham Bulls of the Southern Professional Hockey League. He works with a venture capital group and speaks to corporations about team building and creating a winning culture. Through all of it, he has remained a talent evaluator. That is part of why Division II football still has his attention. “D2 players have a chip on their shoulder. A lot of these guys were told they weren’t good enough to play D1 coming out of high school.” It is a mentality he understands personally. “I have had a chip on my shoulder all the way. I like when someone tells me I can’t do something.” Decades of recruiting have also taught him how much a player can change after the first evaluation is made. “The perception is that they’re lacking in some area, but the truth is that they’re usually not lacking in two or more areas. Measurables have prevented a lot of players from getting opportunities. Those decisions are being made when they’re 18 years old.” “For some players, by the time they are 22 or 23 years old after developing, they are a different cat and have caught up to the players that got to play D1.” His own background does not make him sentimental when it is time to evaluate one. “When I’m recruiting, I have to see it on tape. I don’t believe in inventing a player. Once I get to know someone and see that they have the right mindset, the heart and enough talent, I know I can win with them. I like tough kids.” The transfer portal has created more movement between levels, but it has not changed his belief that Division II still has players worth finding. “I still follow Division II football closely. Because I played at that level, I know there are a lot of hidden gems looking for an opportunity, and they’re hungry.” These days, Division II is also part of his family. His son Kody is a sophomore quarterback at Fort Hays State. He and Cathy live in Hays, Kansas, during the season so they can watch him play, putting him in MIAA stadiums on a regular basis. “I love the MIAA. All the games are within five hours of each other. Every school in the conference has great facilities and a great environment. It’s a well-run conference with a lot of talent. From top to bottom, it’s the toughest conference in the country. It’s a grind in @TheMIAA.” He is there to watch his son. The evaluator in him still comes along. “When I watch my son play, I write down three to five players from the opposing team each week as potential recruits for the Rattlers.” Those names can eventually make their way into Arizona’s recruiting process, giving him another connection to the level that gave him his own opportunity more than three decades ago. Kody could have followed him to West Alabama. His father wanted him to have something of his own. “You might be wondering why my son didn’t go to West Alabama. He had the opportunity, but it was his choice. As a father, I advised him to build his own brand and establish his own relationships.” Kody agreed. That advice reflected the same value that has shaped his father’s life and career: relationships. The ones he built at West Alabama have lasted a lifetime. He wanted his son to have the same chance to build his own somewhere else. Fort Hays State became that place. Being this close to college football has also opened his mind to one more challenge. The modern college game has increasingly added general managers and personnel staffs to handle recruiting, roster construction and the transfer portal. Much of that work is familiar to someone who has spent years evaluating players, recruiting professional talent and building rosters. “The one opportunity that could pull me away from what I’m doing now would be becoming a college general manager. That opportunity could pique my interest. I would love the challenge of building a winner. I know I can hold my own in recruiting, and I’m relentless once I make a commitment.” He is not looking for a way out of Arizona. It is simply one job that interests him because so much of it overlaps with work he has already spent his career doing. For now, he remains president and head coach of the national champion Arizona Rattlers. In Hays, he gets to watch his son build something of his own. And while he is there, he keeps an eye on the other sideline. More than three decades after West Alabama gave him his college opportunity, he is still looking for players waiting on theirs. “I wouldn’t change one thing about my life experiences. My foundation started by learning life lessons and playing D2 football at West Alabama. Go Tigers!”