County football teams gather for Football in the South Media Day

The mounting anticipation for the upcoming start of the 2024 high school football season could be felt as tables and booths, manned by radio personalities and enterprising salesmen of football equipment, were set up in the lobby of the Clarion Inn Conference Center in Sheffield last week. A backdrop, bearing the logo of the Football in the South Scoreboard Show, the organizer of the event, was standing for photos and video interviews. Coaches and players wearing jerseys chatted with one another. In the adjoining conference room, newspaper reporters, TV camera crews, and other various media members from across north Alabama gathered while, one-by-one, the head coach and a few select players from each team were ushered atop the platform and sat behind microphones to field questions.

The Franklin Free Press was there, of course, on July 23rd, the first day of the Football in the South Media Days, as all six teams from Franklin County, one after the other, took the stage.

The Phil Campbell High School varsity football team led off the event. Second-year Phil Campbell head coach Jacob Hamilton, who led the Bobcats to a 4-7 season his first year, was joined by five seniors—Hayden Wingo, Noah Raper, Braxton Mayfield, Johan Vasquez, and Logan Wright—as he gave his spirited introduction to the press.

“Starting in the offseason in January…I started referencing this day in the weightroom because I said I’ll tell you in July, when I get on stage and they stick a microphone in front of my face…or any newspaper wants to talk to me, I’m going to say we’re the hardest-working in our region; we’re going to be the hardest working team in 3A; we’re going to be the hardest working team in the state,” Hamilton began. “I’m not trying to be, you know, cocky or arrogant when I say that, but I do believe we’re the hardest working team in our region, and I wanted to say that at media day. These guys have bought into that. They’ve gotten a lot stronger, a lot better. We’re confident. We finally got a little swagger about ourselves.”

Hamilton went on to discuss the Bobcats’ placement in their new region, Class 3A Region 5, where they will join Oakman, Vinemont, Winfield, Midfield, Carbon Hill, Gordo, and Hanceville.

“We’re excited about the new region,” he said. “Gordo and Winfield, they’re very tough competition—all of 3A is tough competition—but Gordo and Winfield was at the top of that and we believe they’re going to be very good.”

After Hamilton re-emphasized the Bobcats’ attitude towards outworking opponents this offseason, the experience of his returning starters, and introducing the players on stage, the Phil Campbell group took some questions.

One question, directed at senior running back and defensive back Hayden Wingo was about the difference between Hamilton in his first season versus Hamilton in his second year in charge.

“He’s more intense. He expects a lot out of us, and he knows what we can do,” Wingo said. “He knows what this team can do, and he pushes us to the limit.”

Following Phil Campbell was Red Bay High School. The contingent of Tigers was led by fourth-year head coach Heath Childers. He was joined by seniors Jayden Smith and Reed Hamilton and juniors Brayden Tabbs and Jaxon Vinson.

After Childers’ brief introduction of himself and his players, the Tigers started taking questions. The first of these, asked by Jack Ivy of WRMG radio, was how Red Bay planned to deal with the loss of a large senior class last season.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and losing seniors is just a natural progression of things. You can’t keep these kids forever. They grow up, they move on,” Childers said. “That’s your job as a head coach. Each year your team’s going to be different. You’re going to have different faces, you’re going to have different personalities, and the team as a whole is going to have a different personality. The main challenge is just figuring out who we are and what we can be. Once we do that, we’ll be alright.”

Childers went on to answer other questions about team goals—“Our main goal is to try to be the best version of ourself that we can be”—and some of the pressing areas his team still needs to improve in.

Brayden Tabbs, who has been penciled in as Red Bay’s starting quarterback heading into the start of the season, was queried about his transition to the role.

“I like to scramble and stuff like that, so we’re still working on the passing game because I played receiver and corner all my life so it’s different trying to learn to throw the ball,” Tabbs said. “I think we’ve came a long way since the spring game, and we’re going to continue to get better at it and hopefully be ready by (the start of) the season.”

Up next was Vina with second-year head coach Cody Renfrow and seniors Christian McCarley, Cai Lawler, Trevor Baker, and Andrew Shotts taking the stage. Renfrow, who was put in charge of the Red Devils program just before the start of the 2023 season, led the team to a tough 1-8 year last season, but that one win came in the season finale against Waterloo, a 42-32 victory. Renfrow said it was a relief to get that win last season and start the 2024 campaign off on more positive footing.

“That Waterloo win last season was huge for us,” he said. “It really felt like we got the monkey off our back because last year…it was a grind and we finally got rewarded that last game of the year.

“I think the biggest thing moving forward is just confidence. I think we’ve got to believe in ourselves. We’ve got to understand that we are a small school and we’ve got to play both sides of the ball and with that you’ve got to be tough and you have to play with effort every single play,” Renfrow added. “We can’t afford to take a play off here and there—we don’t have the numbers to do that. But I believe in the guys that we do have, and if we can stay confident and play to our potential, I think we can have a successful season.”

Senior quarterback and defensive back Christian McCarley echoed his head coach’s sentiment when asked what the team’s goals were this season.

“Just to be better than what we were last year, and continue that Waterloo victory that we had—continue to play with that kind of fire and that kind of effort that we put into that game,” McCarley said. “A lot of people underestimate us because of how the last couple seasons have went, and we’re just trying to change that.”

McCarley’s teammate, senior running back and linebacker Cail Lawler, also jumped in:

“We’re trying to give Vina a better reputation than we have (had) in the past,” Lawler said. “Most teams when they think about Vina think about, ‘Oh, we’re just going to go in there and beat them.’ We ain’t one of them no more. We want to go in there and fight and come out with a win hopefully.”

Belgreen High School, with its fledgling varsity program, was the next team in the queue. Although the Bulldogs will not be eligible for championship competition, Belgreen will compete in seven varsity games this year. Head coach Jonathan Raper, along with seniors Hunter Woodruff, Landon Cox, Gabe Wilson, and Landon Cantrell were there for the program’s first media day experience.

“This is exciting for our young men,” Raper said in his introduction. “We’re excited about the season and getting it started.

“We played five games last year total, junior high and some JV games…so we’re just going to keep building as we go and hopefully in two more years we’ll be ready to join a region and participate in the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs.”

Senior offensive and defensive lineman Landon Cantrell said he’s looking forward to Belgreen’s first varsity schedule.

“I think it’s going to be a great season,” he said. “I’ve really had fun with Coach Raper and all of our players. It’s just a great atmosphere and I love it.”

The group of Belgreen seniors on the stage will be taking part in the program’s first varsity season but will also have the honor of being the first group of players to play in Belgreen’s nearly-completed football stadium.

“I think that it’s going to be really exciting. There’s probably going to be nothing like it from how everyone is talking it up,” senior running back and linebacker Gabe Wilson said. “It’s really just a blessing that we have those facilities and that someone was able to donate the money for us to have those facilities.”

Asked what goals the players had for the season, senior running back and linebacker Hunter Woodruff said winning games in front of a home crowd would be at the top of his list.

“I think it’ll be good to win some games at home and get the community in it,” he said. “Nobody ever thought they’d see football at Belgreen, and so to hear it talked about the way it has been now, I think it’ll be good.”

When Belgreen’s players were asked who would be the budding program’s top rival, the consensus was Tharptown; and it was the Tharptown Wildcats, as one would have it, that followed the Bulldogs on the platform. Tharptown’s attending players—senior Joah Wilcoxson and sophomore Angel Morales—when asked a similar question said they were most looking forward to playing the Bulldogs this season.

“We don’t really have a rivalry game, but I would say I’m looking forward to the Belgreen game just because our career tech center at our school splits so I’m going to both schools basically,” Wilcoxson said. 

“That will probably be the rival from here on out,” Tharptown head coach John Johnson said. “The communities are so similar, a lot of the people are related to one another, so that’s probably going to become the rivalry since they’ve started a football program.”

Turning the focus to his own team, which finished 1-9 in 2023, Johnson, heading into his second season, said one of the main priorities was getting players committed to the team and a strength and conditioning program.

“One of the things that I noticed very quickly when I took the job last year was there wasn’t very many kids working out here in the summer,” he said. “We’ve had the majority of our team now working out consistently in the summer. That makes the difference in a sport like football, kids not only developing their strength but how much being in the weight room cuts out nagging injuries and things like that. And just the mentality aspect of those guys being around each other to try to build a bond with one another.

“The mentality is starting to change out there. Our principal, Tyler Berryman, is behind all athletics lifting weights, so the mindset’s changing going forward,” Johnson added.

Another focus, Johnson said, will be Tharptown’s defense. The Wildcats gave up over 40 points in each of their nine losses last season.

“The bulk of my career has been as a defensive guy and, just in my opinion, you have to play good defense in order to win football games, so that’s going to be more moving forward,” Johnson said. “One thing I’ve noticed after doing this for 20 years is if you can get a group of guys to play defense aggressively and be smart, you’re going to win games people didn’t think you had a shot to win.”

The last of the six programs in Franklin County to meet the press was Russellville. The Golden Tigers were represented by head coach Dustin Goodwin, entering his first season at the helm, and seniors Jah Williams, Paxton Wray, and Neyland Baker.

“All three (players in the group) have done a really good job of leading this offseason and this spring,” Goodwin said introducing his players. “The guys are working hard.”

Goodwin, an assistant at Russellville under former head coach Doug Goodwin, expressed his enthusiasm to be back with the Golden Tigers.

“I’m happy to be back in Russellville. I think it’s a really special place,” he said. “Being here before I know that athletics is important at Russellville and our community does a really good job of supporting our programs across the board. I’m just really excited to get back in that atmosphere.

“Being back and coming back 14, 15 years later has been a really neat experience,” he added.

Russellville’s players, asked about life under their new head coach, said there’s a notable difference.

“The way we run things, everything’s going fast-paced,” senior offensive lineman Neyland Baker said. “I think we’re in a better situation with leadership roles and coaches leading us in the right direction.”

Senior wide receiver and defensive back Jah Williams jumped in:

“A lot of things are different from last year from our offensive standpoint and defense,” he said. “We run different stuff and the stuff we run this year is better than what we ran last year.”

This season the Golden Tigers moved into Class 5A Region 7 alongside Lawrence County, East Limestone, Ardmore, Fairview, West Point, and Priceville. Asked about Russellville’s scheduled opponents, Goodwin said he was more focused on his own team than the others they would play. 

“I’m more concerned with us to be honest with you. I know it’s cliche and you hear that a lot, but we went through spring training and made some strides we felt like,” he said. “We’ve got a ton of new faces. We lost around 24, 27 seniors and we’re returning three on offense and four on defense, so a lot of fresh faces everywhere. Really the Deshler game week one is going to be the first chance for those guys to step up and show what they can do.”

Asked what success looks like to Goodwin, he said it’s all about helping his players be better both on and off the field.

“My definition of success is to help guys become more mature, responsible young men. We want to be good husbands and fathers at the end of the day. I think if you’re going just fighting for wins, I think you’re missing the boat,” Goodwin said. “Ultimately if they get done and they say, ‘That was very hard. That was very fun. I wish I could do it again,’ and we’re maximizing the talent along the way, then I think that’s successful.”