Mary G. Montgomery High School was fined and placed on probation by the Alabama High School Athletic Association after the school self-reported a recruiting rule violation, and head football coach Zach Golson will be suspended from coaching in the AHSAA for the 2026-2027 school year.

The punishment also puts the school’s varsity football program on restrictive probation for the upcoming 2026 season. Mary G. Montgomery will still be allowed to play its 10-game regular-season schedule, but it cannot take part in postseason play in 2026.

The AHSAA said any students found in violation of the recruiting rule will be deemed permanently ineligible to participate in athletics at Mary G. Montgomery. Those students can regain eligibility in the school district where their family resides, a detail that gives the ruling its sharpest edge.

The case lands after Golson was placed on leave earlier this month for what Mobile County Public School System described only as a personnel matter. The school system did not say then how long the leave would last or whether it was connected to the recruiting matter that later became public through the AHSAA penalty.

That gap matters because the latest ruling ties together the coach, the program and the students in one disciplinary action, while leaving one question unanswered: whether the leave that began earlier this month was part of the same chain of events or a separate issue entirely. For Mary G. Montgomery, the immediate cost is clear — a restrained 2026 season, no postseason shot and a coach sidelined from AHSAA competition for the following school year.