Red Bay hopeful for deeper playoff run in 2024
The Red Bay Tigers, coming off back-to-back early, first round exits in the playoffs, are aiming to get over the postseason hump this campaign. The Tigers are entering their fourth season under head coach Heath Childers, who has improved the team from 2-7 his first year but been stuck on 6-5 in the last two.
Childers, speaking to the press at the Football in the South Scoreboard Show Media Day in July, said he knows wins and losses are important, but with his team he doesn’t want to focus on specific accomplishments. He wants to focus on the small stuff and believes the big stuff will follow.
“The thing about goals is this: everybody wants to win a state title. Everybody wants to win a region title. You ask people, ‘That’s our goal.’ We wanna go 10-0, we wanna go 15-0, we wanna load up on the bus and just go curbstomp Fyffe,” Childers said. “That’s what everybody tells you the goal is, and that is the ultimate goal. You’re here to win ball games. Don’t think for one second at the end of the day it doesn’t come down to wins and loses because it does. But for me and my teams we try not to talk about winning or losing or state title or region titles. Our main goal is to try to become the best version of ourselves that we can be.
“You have that little small goal. We want to be better when we leave this afternoon than we were this morning when come in,” he added. “That’s our main goal. That’s our main focus.
“At the end of the day by the time the season’s over that will eventually lead us to being the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.”
In order to get to that best version of Red Bay, Childers said there are some areas the Tigers will have to improve in before the start of their season.
“Well right now the main thing is we can’t block anybody,” he said. “That’s an issue. That becomes an issue because anybody sitting in the stands can see that somebody isn’t getting blocked, so we’ve definitely got to improve there as far as up front on the offensive line.
“That’s one of the biggest things we lost last year—the biggest thing. We lost four guys up front. They were undersized; a lot of the time they didn’t look like much walking around, but when they strapped on the pads and put that helmet on, what they’d do is go out there and block your butt off,” Childers added. “Just look at our stats—our rushing stats and things of that nature. They did a great job, so we’re having a hard time right now trying to replace those guys. The one place that we need to improve on is getting people blocked. You have to create space for running backs. No space, no success.”
On defense, Childers said Red Bay must get better in the secondary.
“We’re looking at our third level on defense—the secondary. We replaced some guys there,” Chiders said.
“We need to be able to block somebody and we need to be able to cover somebody. That’s pretty important in today’s game, so those are the two main areas that we’re looking at and trying to put emphasis on getting better at,” he added.
Red Bay’s deficiencies in certain areas can almost certainly be attributed to the loss of a large senior class from last season’s squad, but Childers said that’s part of coaching high school football and the Tigers have to play the hand they’re dealt.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and losing seniors is just the natural progression of things. You can’t keep these kids forever. They grow up, they move on, unfortunately,” he said. “That’s your job as a head coach. Each year your team is 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 who we can be. Once we do that we’ll be alright.”
Aside from the offensive line, one major position that a player will have to step in to fill is at quarterback. Replacing Gage Edgmon, who was the starting quarterback for the Tigers last year, will be junior Brayden Tabbs. Tabbs was moved from out wide to be behind center this offseason.
“Brayden and I have been working close together. I think he has the ability to be a really good quarterback for us. I think he has the ability to cause defenses issues, but we’re working on that,” Childers said.
During the media day, Childers added that he and Tabbs were still working on building the working relationship that successful coaches and quarterbacks have together.
“The biggest thing right now that Brayden and I have to work on with each other is trust,” he said. “He’s gotta trust that I’m going to put him in the best situation for him and this team to be successful.
“The biggest reason I made the move with moving Brayden to a position he’s never played before is these last two years he has shown me that’s he’s coachable, and that’s huge.
That’s a quality you see less and less and less of each year,” he added. “As a coach when you find some players or a player that you believe can be coached and take coaching, take constructive criticism, you need to really grab ahold of that and embrace that.”
Tabbs said he likes to scramble around and believes he’s come a long way since being penciled in for the role.
“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,” he said. “I think we’ve come a long way since the spring and we’re going to continue to get better at it and hopefully be ready by the (start of the) season.”
Tabbs added that having returning junior running back Jaxon Vinson, who led the team in total touchdowns last year, in the backfield with him has taken some of the pressure off.
“It’s a big help to have a running back as good as he is—rushed for as much as he did last season. It’s good to have him in the backfield to count on.”
A glance at the schedule and there are some intriguing games for the Tigers this season. Red Bay plays against fellow Franklin County teams Tharptown, in Class 2A Region 8 team, and Class 3A Phil Campbell. Also in the region, besides Tharptown, are Winston County, Lexington, Tanner, and, likely the biggest regular season test, preseason No. 7 Decatur Heritage Christian. But to start the campaign Red Bay will travel to Lamar County, who went 7-3 in the regular season last year before being defeated by Tanner in the first round of the playoffs.
Asked about the difficulties of starting the season on the road in a hostile environment, Childers said both teams are, when push comes to shove, still just playing the same game.
“Playing on the road in high school…sometimes that can be a difficult task and sometimes not so difficult. We have done pretty well on the road since I’ve been here, so I really don’t think it’s going to be a huge mountain for us to climb. At the end of the day you’re ready to play or you’re not. So we have to be ready to play whether we’re on the road or at home. My fans, as good as they are at Red Bay, they can’t run out there on the field and tackle somebody for us or catch a touchdown pass. And vice versa.
“That game at (Lamar County) is going to be decided on which team is most prepared to play, Like any game early on—week zero, week one, week two—the team that commits the least amount of mistakes—penalties, turnovers—that’s going to be the team that’s gonna win. We have to be ready to go play (Lamar County) or whoever we play on the road or whoever we play at home.”
Home and away games in the regular season are just a matter of fact, but home field advantage in the playoffs is determined by what happens in those games. No doubt Red Bay would like to advance to the postseason again this year and, if so, play it at Tiger Stadium by winning the region. It’s a goal set by the players themselves.
“I just want to win area,” senior offensive lineman Reed Hamilton said.
“Obviously (we) want to have a better season than the last and improve every year,” senior tight end Jayden Smith added. “Maybe we can make it a little further in the playoffs this year.”
Tabbs joined the chorus, too:
“I want to win a region title and go as far as we can in the playoffs because we haven’t had as much success the past few years in that,” he said.