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Over the past five years the county tournament has become something of a three-day victory lap for the Handley basketball program.
How fast a football player can run can be somewhat anecdotal. Handley head coach Larry Strain knows this truth all too well. Read more
2019 was a great year for the big boys up front in Randolph County. All-County teams tend to be dominated by skill players who put up gaudy statistics, but this year five linemen and two more players known primarily for their defense account for seven of the 10 spots on the first team. Read more
Heflin sweeps Woodland Read more
Win in blowout fashion. Lose in blowout fashion. Read more
Woodland got its first area win of the season and Wadley continued its strong start with a pair of wins over Ranburne and Reeltown as the teams closed out the 2019 portion of their schedules. Here’s how those games went. Read more
Of course it was Ranburne. Of all the teams to end Woodland’s perfect start to its season, it would have to be the purple-clad rivals to the north. Ranburne beat Woodland’s girls 54-43 in a Friday the 13th contest in which Woodland missed 23 free throws. Read more
Handley led early and led late, but they couldn’t hold the lead at the end as Auburn rallied in the final minute to claim a 60-58 victory over the Tigers in Roanoke last Thursday. Read more
Danny Horn talks sincerely about having good players and great assistant coaches and how he doesn’t do much of the coaching work anymore. Read more
Wadley trailed by four at halftime, but the Bulldogs turned the game around in a dominant third quarter on their way to a 51-42 win over RCHS Monday in Wadley. Read more
You can't accuse the Clay Central Volunteers of making it easy. But they most definitely made it. Read more
There's a philosophy that exists in the sports world, maybe more so than anywhere else, that the brand supersedes all else even when the use of that brand flies in the face of the most basic logic and human reasoning. Read more
When Danny Horn took over the Clay Central football program prior to the 2018 season there was at least one aspect of his wildly successful run at Clay County that he wanted to recreate at his new school. Read more
Two weeks ago Woodland’s boys basketball team snapped a losing streak that covered all or part of four seasons. On Monday they almost made it two wins in a row. Read more
After Clay Central’s 34-28 loss to Mortimer Jordan in week six of the regular season, Central head coach Danny Horn was in no mood to linger on the field. The team gathered for the traditional post-game prayer, after which Horn emphatically told his players in no uncertain terms to go straig… Read more
For the first time all season a team figured out how to run the ball against RCHS’s vaunted defensive front, and that proved to be costly to RCHS in a season-ending 27-20 loss to Walter Wellborn in the third round of the state playoffs Friday. Read more
No one will describe Handley and Oxford’s girls basketball teams as being in midseason form after the Tigers defeated the Yellow Jackets 47-37 Thursday in Roanoke. Read more
Randolph County came into Friday's third round playoff game against Walter Wellborn allowing just 38 rushing yards per game to opposing offenses. But Wellborn and starting quarterback Jett Smith found a way to pile up 224 yards on the ground in a 27-20 Wellborn victory. Read more
For the second straight week, RCHS did not attempt a pass on offense. And for the second straight week it was because they didn’t have to. Read more
Friday’s second-round game between Jasper and Clay Central pitted the defending state champions against the No. 1 team in the state. And by the end of the night the Central Volunteers proved unequivocally which one of those titles carried the most weight. Read more
Moving the ball wasn’t an issue for Handley in its second-round playoff game against Montgomery Catholic. Read more
Ranburne got a firsthand look at the defensive dominance of top-ranked Fyffe and came away just as empty-handed as Fyffe’s 11 previous opponents. Read more
Friday's second round game between Jasper and Clay Central pitted the defending state champions against the No. 1 team in the state. And by the end of the night the Central Volunteers proved unequivocally which one of those titles carried the most weight. Read more
When it comes to sharing the credit for his record-breaking performance this season, it’s clear that Devontae Houston has his priorities in order. Read more
When coaches talk about facing a good defense oftentimes they’ll sum up that defense by saying, “Nobody has scored on them all year.” It’s not meant to be taken literally, of course, but it illustrates the point that they’ve done a good job of shutting down opposing offenses. Read more
The perfunctory first-round game is done, the Volunteers of Clay Central came out on top, and now the true test of the playoffs begins. Read more
RCHS continued a couple of positive trends with its first-round win over Midfield Friday. Read more
The Wadley Bulldogs saw their season come to an end thanks to a dominant performance by Isabella in the first round of the playoffs Friday. Read more
Devontae Houston etched his name in the Handley record books, and the Handley Tigers won a playoff game for the first time since 2016 with a 50-14 win over West Blocton in Roanoke Friday night. Read more
Five first-round playoff games take place tonight, and four of the local teams are playing at home. Read more
In each of the last three years one team in the Leader's coverage area has reached the state finals. In each of the past five years at least one team has reached the state semifinals. Read more
