Altork: And away we go
I love the first Monday in August. I love it for a few reasons.
One, any day in August is awesome because that means that July is over. I like July about as much as I like warm brown bananas. Blech. I wish we could put July in the freezer and use it later for banana bread.
Two, the first Monday in August marks the official start to high school football practice here in Alabama the beautiful and the last stage of the beginning of football season.
(Quick aside: We were returning home from our last beach trip of the summer last week when we crossed the Alabama state line and the sign that says, “Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful.” My 12-year-old son, who apparently was seeing this sign for the very first time, in an honest moment of confusion said, “Wait. Alabama is beautiful?” I didn’t know how to answer. Moving on.)
While college and pro teams have been practicing for nearly two weeks, and high schools have been participating in 7-on-7 tournaments and offseason workouts, now all three phases of the blissful football-filled fall weekends that await are in full swing. High school preseason games are just two weeks away, for Pete’s sake!
With that in mind I feel it is my joyful duty to introduce you to the big-picture issues that await each of our four county football teams in this upcoming season. Today, I will ask (and maybe even answer) the One Big Question that this season will answer for each team.
It’s football season. And that’s definitely beautiful. Away we go.
How will the departure of 27 seniors affect Handley’s state title defense?
Handley entered the season last year with high expectations thanks to the hype surrounding its larger than life senior class. After a less than ideal start those seniors delivered on that hype to the tune of 13 straight wins and a class 4A state championship.
Now those seniors are gone. What’s left is a group of talented, but unproven players who are charged with the task of making their own fortunes without their big brothers (so to speak) there to bail them out if things go haywire.
As many as 20 of the 22 starting positions will be filled by players who only saw the field in limited backup duty last season, if at all.
How well the young players that fill those 20 positions perform will determine whether Handley remains a serious factor on the state level.
How much of an impact on wins and losses will new coach Jeremy Stanford have in his first year at Woodland?
Randy Boyd is out. First-time head coach and Danny Horn pupil Stanford is in. After a late start due to his June hire date, Stanford is in crash course mode getting his team ready for the season.
The departure of starting running back Jade Burge to Handley certainly doesn’t help Stanford’s cause, but the new coach has a plan in place to return the Woodland program to its perennial playoff glory days. The ‘Cats are 3-17 in their last two seasons, so there’s almost nowhere to go but up for Stanford.
Just how special can 2017 be for RCHS?
RCHS got ahead of schedule last year, winning 10 games and reaching the third round of the state playoffs in a year in which they moved up a classification (from 2A to 3A) and started zero seniors on either side of the line of scrimmage.
The line of scrimmage situation will change for the better this year as four-year starter Richard Bledsoe will anchor an experienced front line group that should be coming of age.
There will be no questioning of RCHS’s skill players. With quarterback Brody Wortham, receiver Andrew Prestridge and running back Trent Lane the Tigers have an experienced and talented three-headed monster that will score points in bunches as long as they stay healthy.
It’s a team on the rise. Just how high they can ascend will be the thing to watch as 2017 unfolds.
Can Wadley’s core of senior talent rebound from two years of playoff heartbreak?
Connor Fordham, Quae Drake, Rikishi Buchanan, Coby Nunn, Kerrion Birdsong, Lakota Garrett – if it seems like these names have been playing at Wadley forever its because they’ve been a pivotal component of the team’s backbone for each of the past two seasons, neither of which ended well for the Bulldogs.
In 2015, a last-minute, fourth-down touchdown pass erased Wadley’s one-point lead and propelled Cedar Bluff into the state finals. In 2016 it was Wadley that scored a last minute touchdown against Sweet Water, but again they found themselves devastated as the two point conversion on that touchdown failed, leading to a one-point loss in round two.
This is the year it has to happen for Wadley, and the ability of this senior class to overcome its playoff demons will go a long way toward determining whether they will cash in on their big-time talent.
