West Alabama high school football teams will take a breather from regional play Friday night, but their opponents won”t be strangers.
Rivalries will be played out when Pickens County goes to Aliceville, Marion County visits Sulligent and Lamar County invades American Christian Academy. South Lamar will play host to Winfield in the teams” first meeting.
Pickens Academy will entertain Edgewood in a Class 2A, Region 1 matchup.
n Pickens County (4-0, 3-0 region) at Aliceville (3-1, 3-0 region): Don”t tell Pickens County”s Scott Marchant or Eddie Hill of Aliceville that Friday night”s game isn”t important.
The game might not be crucial in each team”s region standings, but the players know what the game means.
“This game doesn”t mean anything in the playoffs,” said Marchant, whose Class 1A Tornadoes blitzed John Essex 55-16 last week. “But our three non-region games — ACA in the first week, Aliceville in the fifth week, and Gordo in the 10th week — are all rivalry games. Our kids know it.”
Hill”s team is coming off a 20-12 victory against Sumter County last week. The win allowed the Yellow Jackets to stay on top of the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 3A, Region 4 standings.
“The real test for us will be Friday night,” said Hill, who is in his first season as head coach at the school, and had to be told about the rivalry with Pickens County. “These kids are excited about the game. They”ll see each other during the summer, and then they”ll go off to college and play against each other, so this is important to them.”
Hill said he was proud of his players for latching on to the coaches and to the new system.
“The kids are coming around to what we are trying to do,” Hill said. “They are starting to realize what we tell them can work.”
For Pickens County, Marchant said execution will be a key to maintaining a perfect ledger. That might be difficult against an opponent that will feature a lot of size.
“We just have to do the same thing, but just do it better each time,” he said. “They are huge.”
Marchant said the Tornadoes will have to contain running back Marquis Mayhew, who had 153 rushing yards on 30 carries last week.
“He is an excellent football player,” Marchant said. “They are a really good football team.”
Playing outside of the region will mean two things for his squad, Marchant said.
“It helps us get prepared for the stretch run in regional games,” he said, “and it does a lot for bragging rights.”
n Marion County (3-1, 3-0 region) at Sulligent (3-1, 3-0 region): Sulligent”s players continue to work through the distractions involving their head coach in preparation for a rivalry game against Marion County.
Coach Dwight Bowling, a third-year Sulligent coach who was at Smithville High School for 28 years, was arrested Friday after the Blue Devils” 35-20 victory against Colbert Heights. He had a federal court appearance Tuesday in Itawamba County on sexual battery charges and sexual battery and enticement of a minor.
Sulligent High Athletic Director Craig Weeks said the players and coaches are trying to deal with the distractions.
“We”re in a limbo stage,” Weeks said Tuesday. “The coaches are looking at game films. … We are trying to work our way through this.”
Weeks said defensive backs coach Ronnie Hubbard, who has been at Sulligent for three years, will serve as interim head coach. Bowling will remain on administrative leave until his legal status is resolved.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, Marion County is a non-region opponent. Weeks said, however, the teams are re-establishing a rivalry from previous years.
“This is a good rivalry game,” he said. “They fell off the schedule a couple of years, and now we have a chance to rebuild the rivalry.”
n Lamar County (2-2, 2-1 region) at American Christian Academy (3-1, 3-0 region): Ken Adams said his Bulldogs don”t need to worry about regional standings.
“We are more concentrated on ourselves,” said Adams, whose Bulldogs lost to Red Bay 35-25 last week. “We need to carry out our responsibilities. If we do what we are supposed to do, everything else will work itself out.”
For the Bulldogs, getting better each week is crucial.
“What I am looking for more than anything is improvement in the team week to week,” Adams said.
n Winfield (2-2, 1-2 region) at South Lamar (2-2, 1-2 region): Although the schools are only about 35 miles away, their game Friday night will mark the first time they have played, said Stallions coach Josh Harper.
“People will ask why we haven”t played them,” Harper said about the larger Class 3A school. “Now they ask why we would want to play a bigger team like them.”
Harper said Winfield has a football tradition.
“I”ve seen two films on them,” he said. “They have a storied history. They have been very competitive for a few years.”
Although the non-region game will be a test for the Class A Stallions, Harper said he expects his team to go into the contest will few injuries.
“We have the usual midseason bumps and bruises of any other team,” he said. “We don”t have anybody who”s so banged up that they can”t play. We are going to need everybody as we head into the important regional games.”
n Edgewood (5-0, 3-0 region) at Pickens Academy (2-2, 0-2 region): Pirates coach John Gartman expects a tough game when unbeaten regional leader Edgewood visits.
“They are one of the top two or three teams in the state in any classification,” Gartman said. “Bobby Carr is their coach, and he has been there for 10 years.”
The Pirates opened the season with regional losses to Springwood and Restoration. Edgewood will makes the schedule an uphill battle.
“There are no cupcakes on our schedule,” Gartman said.
The only Pickens Academy player who may miss this week”s game is defensive tackle Bryant Tucker, who suffered an ankle injury last week in a 15-14 victory against Tuscaloosa Academy. Gartman said the injury won”t sideline Tucker indefinitely.
“It might keep him out of one game,” he said. “But it”s not too serious.”
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