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PIGSKINPREVIEW

August 2015

St. Clair Times

A Special Supplement to the

• Football Team Photos

• Varsity Cheerleader Photos

• Band Photos

• Game Schedules

• Team Previews

2 – The St. Clair Times, Thursday, August 27, 2015 Pigskin Preview 2015

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Table of ContentsAshville Bulldogs - 2Leeds Green Wave - 6

Moody Blue Devils - 10Pell City Panthers -14

Ragland Purple Devils - 19Springville Tigers - 23

St. Clair County Saints - 26Victory Christian Lions - 30

Ashville Bulldogs

Bulldogs hope to make strides in 2015By GARY HANNERTimes Associate Editor

Ashville’s Steve Martin is starting his third year as head coach of the Bulldogs.

He’s hoping this will be the season his Bulldogs take the necessary steps to advance to the state playoffs. To do that, the Bulldogs will need to build on a 2-8 season in 2014.

The team lost 13 seniors to graduation, but Martin said all of them were not starters.

Martin said key players returning include quarter-back Judd Mundy, Kenny Brady at F-back and line-backer, Dakota Brock at offensive tackle and defen-sive end, Malek Williams at offensive line and defen-sive tackle, Kyle King, Hunter Huckbay, David Palmer, Arnold Gutierrez, Ryan Whisenhunt, Mike Backer, Tanner Burns, Andy Morgan and Landon Cornutt.

A newcomer this year

is senior Reagan Wilson, who has never played foot-ball. Martin said Wilson would probably be a start-er on both offense and defense.

Ashville is in Class 3A, Region 6 along with Glencoe, Ohatchee, Piedmont, Pleasant Valley, Walter Wellborn, Weaver and Westbrook Christian.

“To me, from top to bottom, it may be the toughest region in Class 3A,” Martin said. “I know Region 8 with Madison Academy is tough, but man, we are in a tough region ourselves. We have some dang good teams in

our region.”Martin said the teams

to beat in the region are Piedmont, Glencoe and Walter Wellborn.

“I would put them in the top three,” he said.

Martin said the keys to a successful season include staying injury-free.

“We have more depth than we’ve had in the past, but we still don’t have enough depth to survive

Ashville ScheduleAug. 21 OPENAug. 28 White Plains Sept. 4 Piedmont Sept. 11 Weaver Sept. 18 Ohatchee Sept. 25 Montevallo Oct. 2 Glencoe Oct. 9 Pleasant Valley Oct. 16 Walter Wellborn Oct. 23 Westbrook Christian Oct. 30 Pisgah

a whole lot of injuries,” he said.

Martin said another key is winning a couple of games the Bulldogs are not supposed to win.

“We’ve got to win the games we’re supposed to win,” Martin said. “And then pull off an upset or

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two. We need to stay together, focus and play together as a team with one heartbeat instead of individual heartbeats.”

Martin said, obviously, coaches and players never plan to lose a game.

“You go into each game hop-ing to win them,” he said.

“To say you want to win six games does not mean I plan to lose four games. On the other hand, realistically speaking, I

think a six- to seven-win season and a playoff berth would be a huge step in the right direc-tion.”

The last time Ashville had a winning season and advanced to the state playoffs was in 2005. The Bulldogs finished 6-5 and lost to Aliceville 45-15 in the

first round.Now, a decade later, Martin

is hoping 2015 is the year the Bulldogs make their postseason return.

“We need to turn things around here at Ashville, and we have a chance to do that this year,” he said.

Ashville has a bye week to start the season Aug. 21.

Its first game will be Aug. 28 at White Plains in a non-region game.

Contact Gary Hanner at [email protected].

Ashville Bulldogs

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Leeds Green Wave

Green Wave wants to keep rolling over competitionBy GARY HANNERTimes Associate Editor

Talk about your dynas-ties.

Since 2008, Leeds has won three state champion-ships (2008, 2010, 2014), lost in the title game once (2013) and played 100 games during that sev-en-year period.

In those games, the Green Wave has compiled a record of 88-12 on the field.

Coach Keith Etheredge said it is not difficult get-ting the boys up for anoth-er season.

“They do a good job of getting themselves up for a game,” he said. “We went 14-1 last year. Our goal was to go 15-0, so we missed our goal. There is always room for improve-ment.”

Etheredge said his

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Leeds Green Wave

players hold each other accountable.

Leeds has five starters returning on offense and defense.

Etheredge knows one of the key areas he has to rebuild is the offensive line.

“We have to replace four guys up front,” he said. “We did some good things in our spring game, but we will have to get better. Mike Rankins is our only starter returning on the offensive line. We have some young guys who are stepping in to fill those positions. They have worked real hard and have done a great job at prac-tice.”

Other key players returning for Leeds include Josephus Smith, TaDarryl Marshall, Trey Nation, Tyler Rose, Morgan Coston, Antwan Nation and Isaiah Sharpe-Perry.

Marshall committed to

the University of Tennessee a couple of months ago.

“He wanted to go ahead and do it because he knew that’s where he wanted to go,” Etheredge said. “He had three schools he really likes – Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Tech. His dad has been a Tennessee fan his entire life. He really loves it up there. He is comfortable with the coaches there.”

Although Marshall is the starting quarterback, Etheredge said he is an unbelievable wide receiver.

“That is probably what he will play at Tennessee,” Etheredge said. “Maybe some defensive back and return kicks as well. He plays quarterback for us simply because he is a great athlete.

“We want him touch-ing the football as much as possible. He has a great arm and is poised in the pocket. He can pull it down and run the ball. When everything breaks down, he is great.”Leeds is in Class 4A, Region 3 along with

Dadeville, Childersburg, Munford, Elmore County, Handley and Holtville.Etheredge said Hand-ley should be stronger in 2015, and the Leeds coach said some other schools in the region should be tough as well.“I think Dadeville and El-more County will be good this year,” he said.

The only team to beat the Green Wave last year was Dadeville.“We have them at home this year, and we have that date circled,” Etherege said. “(The) coaches do and the players do. They want that game bad.”Leeds plays hosts to Dadeville on Oct. 9.The Green Wave will

WaveFrom Page 6

See Wave, Page 8

open the season against 3A powerhouse Madi-son Academy on Aug. 21 at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery. The game

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team’s goal for the season, Etheredge said it’s always the same.

“Go 15-0 and win a state championship,” he said. “We talk about it every year. We want to go undefeated. The loss to Dadeville was probably the best thing that hap-pened to us last year. It opened our eyes.

“We scored in that game with 24 seconds remaining to win it. The touchdown got called back due to a penalty. We had 17 penalties for 174 yards in that game. It was just

unreal. We didn’t have 17 penalties the entire year outside that game.”

Etheredge said the key to a successful season will be the offensive line mak-ing progress.

“They have to keep working, and I think they

will be fine,” he said. “Special teams are solid. Clark Smith is our deep snapper. Morgan Coston is a solid kicker. I feel comfortably he can nail 45-yard field goals at any point in the game. On kickoffs, he puts the foot-

ball in the end zone.”Tre Nation rushed for

over 2,000 yards last year and has over 5,500 rush-ing yards total and 75 touchdowns.

Etheredge said the senior will probably become the school’s lead-

Leeds ScheduleAug. 21 Madison Academy Aug. 28 Trinity Sept. 4 Munford Sept. 11 Central Clay County Sept. 18 Elmore County Sept. 25 Piedmont Oct. 2 Handley Oct. 9 Dadeville Oct. 16 Childersburg Oct. 23 Holtville Oct. 30 OPEN

AHAAHHAHAH

ing rusher by the end of this season.

“Tre is very consis-tent and a powerful kid,” Etheredge said.

“He has dropped some weight and has picked up some speed. That’s one thing he had to work on –

his breakaway speed.”Etheredge said it was a

season he is looking for-ward to.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said.

“We just have to get everything together and keep everyone healthy.”

WaveFrom Page 7

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Moody Blue Devils

By GARY HANNERTimes Associate Editor

In four years as head football coach at Moody High School, Jay Brown has led the Blue Devils to a record of 19-23.

They have advanced to the first round of the state playoffs the past two years and enjoyed a .500 record at 11-11.

Brown is hoping this will be the season his team can advance past the first round. Each of the past

two years, the Blue Devils have finished fourth in the region, had to travel in the opening round and ended up with losses to Cullman and Guntersville.

Senior quarterback Christian Weems is among the key players returning on offense. Brown said Weems started last year and had a strong season with 2,000 yards passing.

“He did a phenome-nal job and he is a great leader,” Brown said. “He improved with every

game last year. He had a good spring game against Ashville and threw for 200 yards in the three quar-ters he played. He is really sharp and does a great job leading the offense.”

Brown also mentioned an offensive lineman, Richard Ragsdale, who saw plenty of playing time last year and did a great job.

Other offensive play-ers expected to make an impact include running back Gabe Webb, wide

receiver Max Archer and offensive linemen Ethan Mills, MacKenzie Davis, Matthew Reese and Colby Bush.

“These guys have some experience up front and will be able to help us out on the offensive line,” Brown said.

Inside linebackers Hunter Strickland and Justin Cowans are expect-ed to lead the defense.

“Both of those guys had over 100 tackles last sea-son,” Brown said. “They

Blue Devils bank on better playoff performanceare both tremendous lead-ers and both are seniors.”

Others Brown men-tioned included defensive

end Brett Staggs, Caleb Sciro, Jacob Webber and

See Devils, Page 11

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Moody Schedule

Aug. 21 Hamilton Aug. 28 OPENSept. 4 Springville Sept. 11 Mortimer Jordan Sept. 18 Hayden Sept. 25 Walter Wellborn Oct. 2 SCCHS Oct. 9 Anniston Oct. 16 Alexandria Oct. 22 Lincoln Oct. 30 Arab

A

HAHHAAHAH

Bubba Green. The Blue Devils are

in Class 5A, Region 6 along with Alexandria, Anniston, Hayden, Lincoln, Mortimer Jordan, Springville and St. Clair County.

Brown said the tough-est thing about the region is that any team can beat any other team on a given night.

“It makes for a very tough region schedule,” he said.

“From top to bottom, but I guess you would have to give the nod to Mortimer Jordan. They won 10 games last year, have a lot of kids back, including their starting quarterback. They will be tough to beat.”

Brown said Alexandria and Lincoln are going to be tough, along with two county teams the Blue Devils have to play in Springville and St. Clair County.

Moody’s three non-region opponents (Hamilton, Walter Wellborn and Arab) all won seven or more games last year and went to the state playoffs.

According to Brown,

one key to a successful season will be how well the defense plays early.

“We lost so many people offensively, and it’s going to be a first-time thing for a lot of the guys,” he said. “That’s why the spring was very important for us.

“Those early games when we go to Hamilton, then play Springville at home and then go to Mortimer Jordan when it is 100 degrees, you grow up fast right there. It is going to be important for us not to turn the ball over and give ourselves a chance to win those first couple of games.”

Brown said the Blue Devils are not big defen-sively, but he feels they can be a good unit.

“I have no doubt that our offense can catch up with our defense as the season goes along,” he said.

“I think we will be OK, we just have a lot of young kids. We are depending on our seniors up front to have a good year.”

Brown said the kicking game is going to be a key, noting that Ashton Carter is an asset for the Blue Devils.

“I think he has the potential to be one of the best kickers around,”

Brown said. “I think he can put the football in the end zone on kickoffs, and I think he can kick long field goals. We have a lot of confidence in him.

“Last year, he was per-

fect on PATs and missed just one field goal. Punting duties will be between Carter and Weems.”

And as always, Brown said staying healthy is a key to a successful season.

“Realistically, making the playoffs is a top goal of ours,” Brown said.

“If we do, that will be three years in a row. We really want to host a play-off games this year. We’ve

been on the road the past two seasons in the first round. We just want to be competitive in every single

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After opening the season on the road at Hamilton last week, the Blue Devils have a bye week tomorrow night and will

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like where it is,” Brown said. “I wish it was more toward the middle of the sea-son. I wish we played five games, had a bye week, and then played the remaining five games.”


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Pell City Panthers

By LAVONTE YOUNG

PELL CITY- Brooks Dampeer enters his third season at the helm at Pell City focused on finding a way to win an area championship.

Last season, the Panthers finished fourth in a tough region that features traditional powerhouses Opelika, Ben Russell and Oxford. Dampeer knows if they can earn one of the two top spots in Class 6A Region 3, their chance of having postseason success increases.

“The thing I keep telling them is that we need to host a playoff game,” Dampeer said. “When you host a playoff game, your odds of getting into the second round goes up. Now it is all relative to who you are playing, and we play really tough competition and in a really

tough region. You have to find a way to get No.1 and No.2 in the region, and right now it’s Opelika and Ben Russell, and we have to figure out how to beat those guys. They are blessed with athletic teams and then you have us, Oxford, and Chelsea fighting for the next two spots.

“Any one of us can beat Ben Russell, and I think that is where the toss up happens. It was 6-0 at halftime at Benjamin Russell, and they tipped the ball, it was a pick six, and it went from there. We have to be more productive offensively. It will come down to how well our kids execute and produce.”

The Panthers went 6-5 last season and lost in the first round to Carver Montgomery after having been for-

Strategies for championship win are Panthers main focus

See Panthers, Page 15

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Pell City Panthers


Pell City Schedule

Aug. 21 Walker Aug. 28 Lincoln Sept. 4 Chilton County Sept. 11 Opelika Sept. 18 Benjamin Russell Sept. 25 Huffman Oct. 2 OPENOct. 9 Oxford Oct. 16 Chelsea Oct. 23 Valley Oct. 30 Oak Mountain

AHAHAA

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tunate to pull out several close games last season. Three of their six wins were by three points or less.

“Last year, we thought we had the opportunity to win the seventh ball game, and we really hoped Oak Mountain and Oxford was going to be that,”Dampeer said. “We were really for-tunate to come away with a victory against Walker. They had it at the 1-yard line with a chance to go up two touchdowns, and we held them out. We ended winning 17-14. We have to figure out how to win the seventh and eighth ball games. Again, everything that we do is relative to competition.”

Dampeer believes that his team is similar in make-up to teams like Briarwood and Homewood in 6A’s Region 5. Homewood went 9-3 and won the region title.

“If we play in a differ-ent region, that is a differ-ent thing,” he said. “We are competing very par-allel in type players with Homewood and Walker. Homewood we played in the spring, and Walker we play in the first game. They are winning their region. If we get in those, we have a chance to win the region. It is just all rela-tive to who we are playing. The south is really tough. The first game of the play-offs you play a team like Carver Montgomery, that is a tough draw. We don’t get a choice about who we play in those scenarios It is what it is, and you have

to roll with it.”One of the players who

stood out for the Panthers during the summer is run-ning back Chris Lynch. Dampeer praised the ded-ication that he showed to improve during the off-season.

“As a staff, we have talk-ed about Chris Lynch just

accepting being coach-able and working hard,” Dampeer said. “I still have to get on him, but I think he has matured a lot this year. I think that is due to being a year into the pro-gram already. I am really proud of his maturity, he has to be very productive for us to be successful.”

Lynch had several big games for the Panthers last season. In a must-win game against Chelsea, he had 231 yards of total offense. He also had rushed for over 100-yards in their win over Valley to clinch a playoff berth.

“I think last year he tried to do too much at

times,” Dampeer said. “I think if he can play within the offense he could be more successful.

I think he is realizing that there are six guys on defense that are as fast as he is. You just have to do what is asked of

See Panthers, Page 18

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you to do and don’t do too much. I think doing that he will see himself being more productive.”

Experience on defense is a strength for the Panthers this fall. Pell City returns several key defen-sive players, including highly recruited lineback-er Elijah Shepard. The senior has five scholarship offers.

“I think the front seven will be solid. It will be an older group of guys with four senior linebackers. You always feel good when you have older guys on the field, and that doesn’t even have a thing to do with making plays. The game has slowed down to them.

“There will be a level of maturity at lineback-er, and there will be two seniors in the secondary and a senior or two up front. “

PanthersFrom Page 15

During the Annual Conference of the Alabama/Mississippi Section of the American Water Works Association at Point Clear Alabama, The Leeds Water Works Board was awarded the title of “Best Tasting Drinking Water: from the Section. It was the second time that the utility has won the award since the competition began five years ago. They compet-ed against other public water supply systems from the two states of Alabama and Mississippi.

Bill Morris of the Leeds Water Works Board accepted the award during the Annual Sponsor Luncheon on October 14, 2014 from Chairman David Stejskal and YP co-chairs La-Quoyah McDaniel and Chris Bryson.

The competition was sponsored by the Section’s Young Pro-fessionals Committee and took place the prior day during the Strolling Lunch. Water samples were scored on a scale of 1 to 10 by a panel of three judges in four categories (Taste, Odor, Color and Clarity). The judges for the competition were National AWWA Vice President Michael Simpson, Past Section Manager Ken McCool, and Past AL/MS Sec-tion Chairman Sam McElroy (2010 Chair).

The Leeds Water Works Board’s water is eligible to advance to the “Best of the Best” Taste Test at the 2015 AWWA An-nual Conference and Exposition (ACE’15) in Anaheim, California in June. There, they will compete against water providers from the 43 other Sections of AWWA from across the Country.

000215159r1

LEEDS WATER WORKS BOARD AWARDED“Best Tasting Drinking Water”

By GARY HANNER

When Ragland lines up to play its first foot-ball game this season, the Purple Devils will do so under a new head coach.

Michael Hathorn, a native of Mississippi, is the new man at the helm.

He takes over for Jonathan Nix, who is now the coach at Class 3A Pleasant Valley. In three

seasons at Ragland, Nix led the Purple Devils to a 30-5 record and three state playoff berths.

Hathorn played college football at the University of North Alabama as an offensive lineman.

His first head coaching experience came in 2012 at Hatton High School, where he went 3-7.


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Ragland Schedule Aug. 21 Maplesville Aug. 28 Gaston Sept. 4 Wadley Sept. 11 Winterboro Sept. 18 Appalachian Sept. 25 Cedar Bluff Oct. 2 Talladega County Central Oct. 9 OPENOct. 16 Donoho Oct. 23 Victory Christian Oct. 30 Ohatchee

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He played one year of professional football overseas at Salzburg, Austria. For the past two years, Hathorn, 28, was an assistant coach at Pell City.

Hathorn said it was a great opportunity for him to be a head coach again.

“It’s … an exciting thing,” he said. “It’s also exciting to take over a program that has had so much success the past several years. It is fun tak-ing over a program where you know you can be successful. You know the kids are going to work hard and do what they have to do.”

Hathorn said that success will continue if the players continue to work the way they have been working.

“It is obvious they have worked hard here in the past,” he said. “I just want to keep pushing them to raise their level of play. I want them to improve every day.”

Devin Turner, who anchors the offensive and defensive lines, is among the key returning players. Hathorn said Turner has good hands and quick feet.

“We are excited to see what he is going to be able to do,” Hathorn said.

One of the skill players Hathorn mentioned was junior running back Jadon Killings.

“He is just a special athlete,” Hathorn said. “He has a lot of stuff that just can’t be coached because it is God-given ability.”

The only senior on the team is Jagger Phillips, who will play wide receiver and defensive back. Stoney Merritt will be the quarterback, and Hathorn is expecting great things from both.

Ragland is in 1A, Region 5 along with Wadley, Winterboro, Appalachian, Talladega County

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Central, Donoho and Victory Christian.

“It’s a tough region,” he said. “There are sever-al good teams, including Wadley, Talladega County Central and Donoho. From top to bottom, the region as a whole is really, really good. We will have to bring our A-game every week.”

A team strength, accord-ing to Hathorn, is athleti-cism at the skill positions.

“We also have a cou-ple of guys up front that are big, strong guys,” he said. “I feel good about it because I think we can be two different offenses. We can have a power run-ning game, but we can also spread some guys out and throw the ball around. I think we can do some great things.”

Hathorn said the Purple Devils are lucky because all of the skill guys are young, athletic and run well.

The coach said Ragland’s goal for this year is based, at least in part, on the suc-cess the Purple Devils have had in the past.

“We want to win the region,” Hathorn said. “I believe we can be very competitive in the region. I think we have the skills to win the region.”

Ragland opens the season at 1A power Maplesville on Aug. 21. The Red Devils went 14-0 last year and won the state championship. Hathorn said the matchup was orig-inally scheduled to be a jamboree game.

Maplesville enters the game ranked preseason No. 1. Ragland was tops among other teams receiving votes for the 1A Top 10.


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Springville Tigers


Springville head coach Steve Davis knows his Tigers went 2-8 last year. He also knows the eight losses were by an average of six points.

“We were in every game,” he said. “In the fourth quarter, we had a chance to win these games. We could have easily been 8-2 and headed to the play-offs instead of 2-8.

“We just couldn’t make that play at the end, wheth-er it was a miscue on spe-cial teams or a turnover, or giving up a big play on

defense. Our kids felt like they were a pretty good football team last year.”

Davis said his guys did not get tired late in games, but rather, just couldn’t make a crucial play at a crucial moment.

“We had bad breaks, and the ball just didn’t bounce our way,” Davis said.

“All we ask from our kids is to play hard, give 100 percent effort, and be coachable, to represent their school, community and last name with every snap they play. That’s what they did.”

Davis said he believes

this is the year the Tigers turn the corner. With only seven seniors lost to grad-uation, there are plenty of starters returning.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids coming up who I think can help us a lot,” he said.

Inside linebacker Kelly Ryan is among the key returning players, the coach said.

“He is just a see-ball, hit-ball kid,” Davis said. “He may not make the right read all the time, but he is going to be where the

ball is. He loves contact. He is our guy on defense that sets the tone for a lot of things.”

Offensively, junior tail-back Jordan Byrd is com-ing off a winter injury but should be at full speed.

“His last name holds

a lot of weight here in Springville,” Davis said. “There has been a Byrd playing football in Springville the past few decades. Jordan is a great kid and a hard worker. We

Tigers hungry to make crucial 4th quarter plays this season

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Springville Tigers

really look for him to have a great year.”

Other key players include Blake Powers at inside linebacker and Chace Nappier on the offen-sive and defensive line. Davis said Nappier is a four-year starter and

anchor of the offensive front.Springville competes in

Class 5A, Region 6 along with Alexandria, Hayden, Lincoln, Anniston, Mortimer Jordan and county foes Moody and St. Clair County.

Davis said Mortimer Jordan is the team to beat.

“They are the standard in our region,” Davis said. “It is fun having two other county teams in

the same region. (Coaches) Lance Smith (at St. Clair County) and Jay Brown (at Moody) do a won-derful job. It would be awesome if all three of us could find a way into the state playoffs.

“I think us and St. Clair were a play away from making that happen last year. We are so close, knocking on the door.”

Davis said the key to a success-ful season will be staying inju-

ry-free. “We also have to cut down on turnovers,” he said. “Another key is to get better on special teams, and I want to see us be more efficient on offense once we get into the red zone.

“We were able to move the football from the 20 to the 20 (last fall). We just had a hard time getting the football into the end zone, or we were not able to kick a field goal.”

As far as goals, Davis wants to see his guys reach the postseason.

“I want us to represent Springville well,” he said. “I think it has been since 2009 that we advanced to the playoffs. For Springville, that is a long drought.”

Springville opens the season at Sylacauga on Aug. 28.


TigersFrom Page 24

Springville Schedule Aug. 21 OPENAug. 28 Sylacauga Sept. 4 Moody Sept. 11 SCCHS Sept. 18 Alexandria Sept. 25 Talladega Oct. 2 Anniston Oct. 9 Hayden Oct. 16 Lincoln Oct. 23 Mortimer Jordan Oct. 29 John Carroll

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Entering his second year as head football coach at St. Clair County, Lance Smith is looking for the Saints to improve on last season’s 3-7 record.

In order to get better, Smith said the Saints have to be more consistent on both sides of the football.

“We have to be a much better tackling team,” he said. “Last year, we didn’t do a good job tackling. We will spend a lot of time in camp working on the fundamentals of tack-ling.”

Offensively, the Saints put up some good statis-tics last year but didn’t finish drives, Smith said.

“We had way too many turnovers,” he said. “You take away some of the turnovers, we could have won two to three more games.”

Smith said it’s critical for St. Clair County to mature.

“We were a very young team last year and played a lot of young kids,” he said. “We need those guys to step up and go to another level.

“As coaches, we have to make sure we get them in the right spots to make the plays we need them

to make. Last year in big moments of the ballgame, we didn’t get the job done when we needed to.”

The Saints lost 12 seniors to graduation, seven of which were start-ers. Despite that, Smith is optimistic.

“We have a chance to

be a lot better than we were last year as long as the guys keep improving the way they did in the spring and summer,” he said.

Senior quarterback Taylor Mickens, who started eight of 10 games in 2014, is among the key

returning players. Several offensive linemen are back, including Mason Dixon.

Defensively, out-side linebackers Johnny Thornton and Justice Carter both return.

“Both are seniors, and we expect big things out

of them,” Smith said. “Our defensive line is going to be better, but we will still be young.”

St. Clair is in Class 5A, Region 6 along with Mortimer Jordan, Alexandria, Anniston, Hayden, Lincoln, Moody and Springville. When

asked about the team to beat, Smith said it will be between Lincoln and Mortimer Jordan.

“Mortimer Jordan has a lot of starters return-ing, while Lincoln has a very athletic team and (is)

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well-coached,” Smith said. “Our region is tough with a lot of talented football teams. It will be a grind each and every week due to the caliber of teams we play.”

Having two county teams in the same region with the Saints makes things interesting, Smith said.

“They have always been big rival games for us,” he said. “Having them in the region makes them that much more important because those

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St. Clair County Schedule

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games will decide whether or not you make it to the state playoffs.”

Smith said team strengths have to start with the offensive line.

“They’ve had a good summer,” he said. “They had a great camp at JSU, so we are expecting great things from them.”

One key to a successful season, Smith said, is stay-ing healthy.

“We have to stay inju-ry-free,” he said. “We do not have an extreme amount of depth, although our numbers are up.

“Another key is that our players have to improve in each and everything they do at that moment.”

Smith said the ultimate goal is to improve each and every week.

“You can be a good

football team in this region and still not make the playoffs,” he said. “As long as we see improve-ment at each and every practice and at each and every game, then I would think it would be a suc-cessful season for our play-ers.

“Yes, we would love to get in the playoffs, and that’s what we really want to do. But improvement is a key because we struggled so much with that last year.”

SaintsFrom Page 27

The Saints open Aug. 28 at John Carroll.


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Victory Christian Lions

By SHANE DUNAWAY Most coaches would not

be impressed by fielding a team with a 4-6 record in their first season.

But Victory Christian head coach Mark Sanders, who inherited a team that had gone 1-38 in the pre-vious four seasons, said he believes his team is trend-ing upward in his second season.

“We had a great sum-mer,” he said. “A lot of guys are getting stronger, reaching new goals and new maxes on weightlift-ing, doing a lot of good conditioning and just building team unity. We got to go to a lot of 7-on-7 games, and we went to a football camp. We’ve been working hard. It’s been a real good summer.”

Senior tight end and defensive lineman Peyton Barber said the increase in strength during summer workouts has been notice-able.

“We had a lot of guys showing up and working,” he said. “We had four or five benching 200 going (into summer). Now we’ve got 15 people benching 200 going into the season.”

While he noted 4-6 was a “big climb” for the Lions, Sanders highlighted some of the shortcomings that kept the team from

reaching greater heights in 2014.

“I think the way we ran our offense last year and our limitations on expe-rience kind of hurt us,” he said. “Injuries were the biggest factor on us losing the six games. We had a lot of injuries we didn’t need because we didn’t have a lot of depth.”

Sanders said he believes his team will grow from last season’s learning expe-rience.

“We’re more comfort-able and confident now than we were last year, and I hold a lot of confidence in my defense,” he said. “I think they’re going to be the difference-makers this year. Our offense is going to be able to put up points. I think our only down-fall really on our team is depth.”

He added the Lions will start the 2015 season most-ly intact, with lineback-er Joseph Megahee as the only senior who saw action and another senior Richard Hinson, who despite being ineligible to play served as a motivator and moral sup-porter on the sidelines, as the only key losses.

“Their leadership on the field and their lead-ership in practice, we’ll miss that,” he said. “We’ve got good guys stepping up who are going to fulfill

Lions hoping for more wins with Sanders

Victory Christian Schedule Aug. 21 Holy Spirit Aug. 28 OPENSept. 4 Appalachian Sept. 11 Talladega County Central Sept. 18 OPENSept. 25 Woodville Oct. 2 Donoho Oct. 9 Winterboro Oct. 16 Wadley Oct. 23 Ragland Oct. 30 ASD

A

AH

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those roles.”Although some play-

ers have moved to other schools, Sanders said the team has picked up a few inbound players to pair with more than a dozen seniors and the other play-ers returning for 2015.

“We’ve lost some, and we’ve gained some,” he said. “For the most part right now, the guys we have coming back that are start-ing for us this year are the same ones we had starting last season. Nothing’s really

changed as far as the lineup goes.”

One of those returning players is senior linebacker and offensive lineman Kyle Roberson.

“He’s a great on-the-field leader,” Sanders said. “He led our team in tackles last year. He never wants to come out of a foot-ball game. He stays in the whole game – special teams, offense and defense.”

The Lions will also have

See Lions, Page 31


Victory Christian Lions

sophomore quarterback, and line-backer Harrison Cheatwood join-ing senior running back and safety Shawn Traywick to help provide continuity.

“We’re looking to have a good year out of (Cheatwood),” Sanders said. “He’s gotten bigger, stron-ger and more experienced during the summer. I’ve got a big senior class, and I’m expecting a lot out of all of them, to be honest with you. Traywick had a decent year last year for the most part. The first game of the year, he rushed for 300 yards, but he was kind of plagued by concussions.”

Sanders said the offense will feature a variety of elements, including zone-read concepts, spread and I-formation, and the defense will incorporate many dif-ferent schemes.

“We do all kinds of stuff offen-sively and have a lot of differ-ent formations (on offense),” he said. “Defensively, we switch that up, too. We’re always constantly changing on defense.”

Despite playing in what he called one of the hardest regions in 1A football, Sanders said his team embraces the challenge of facing teams like Ragland, TC Central, Winterboro and Wadley on their quest for postseason play.

“We’re kind of like in the SEC of 1A football,” he said. “We defi-nitely don’t have it easy by any means, but we don’t really want to have it easy. We want to get the best competition we can because it makes us better. That’s what we’re shooting for. I have the most con-fidence in them in the world, and I really do think we have a great shot at getting into the playoffs.”

Barber agreed with Sanders’ sentiments that the Lions are a playoff-ready squad.

“Honestly, I want to go to the

playoffs,” he said. “I really want to go to the playoffs, and I think we’re definitely capable of doing that this year.”

Senior running back and line-backer Christian Brown said he sees the hunger in his teammates every day in practice and he believes their intensity will yield a playoff berth.

“I want to go to the playoffs. he This is our senior season, and we want to do something this school hasn’t had in a long time,” he said. “We just want to put in a lot of hard work and do our best. We are in a tough region, but we’re not going to let that stop us. It’s not going to be a walk in the park for us, but we just look at it like we’ve been through it all the past cou-ple of years, and we’re just seeing that and how hard it was to get through that. Now, we feel like we can take on any team because it’s nothing we haven’t been through before and nothing we haven’t faced.”

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