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Fort Dale Academy head coach Eric Folmar has had a long journey, one that brought him back to the south near his hometown.

Folmar was born in Luverne but raised in Montgomery where he graduated high school from Edgewood Academy. He attended Jefferson State Community College with a baseball scholarship and graduated with a degree in sports management. 

After college, Folmar joined the Marine Corps for four years and spent time in San Diego, California, Dallas, Texas and Okinawa, Japan before stepping into a coaching career.

Marshall Watts, assistant football coach at Fort Dale Academy, said the players have nothing but respect for Folmar. 

“Coach Folmar is great for our football program,” Watts said. “He holds them accountable in all areas. Often people only see his corrections for the guys and not how he truly loves them. Every one of the players would run through a wall for him.”

Folmar began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Edgewood Academy, and then coached at Fulton University for three years. His first head coach position was at Southwest Georgia Academy for two years before returning to his Edgewood Academy as head coach for two more years. 

Senior player Joseph Ealum said he sees Folmar as a role model.

“I’ve been with Coach Folmar since he took the job,” Ealum said. “I can speak for the team when I say he has really made a difference. From the way he expects the locker room to look, the way we act, and the way he expects practices and games go. He’s a great football coach and an even better role model to us, and just a great person to learn from.”

The coach took an opportunity as assistant coach at a large 6A school in Arkansas for two years, but in 2020 he returned to his roots as the offensive coordinator at Luverne School for a year. In February of 2021, Folmar accepted the opportunity to become head coach at Fort Dale Academy.

Folmar said he has no plans of leaving Greenville anytime soon. 

“I really enjoy living in Greenville, in a small close knit community,” Folmar said. “Fort Dale has been really good to me, and we’ve worked really hard to build what we’ve got here. I think we’ve got a good thing going with a good group of coaches and a good group of kids. It’s something we’re all really excited about for the future.”

In his free time Folmar enjoys spending time with his eight month old son, Emmett, his fiancé Emerald Williams and her son, Jackson. Folmar said he is a sports fanatic and even in his free time he is always engaged with a sport by either watching it or reading about sports.