By Rubin E. Grant Coming off consecutive 4-6 seasons, Spain Park coach Shawn Raney described the outlook for the Jaguars’ 2020 football season as “very encouraging.” “We’ve got some big kids for a change and our offense has the most skilled players we’ve ever had,” Raney said. “I hope we get to play the whole season because I think it could be special. “Harrison Barker, our … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant  Oak Mountain coach Cris Bell believes the Eagles are ready to challenge for a playoff berth this season. “If we can stay healthy, we’ll be OK,” Bell said. “We’ve got a really solid nucleus returning. On defense, we have nine guys who started or played impactful snaps. On offense, we’ve got (quarterback) Evan (Smith) back. He makes a lot of things go … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Mountain Brook football coach Chris Yeager expects it will take a few games for the Spartans to get a feel for what they’re doing this season. “We had a good summer of workouts and we have a lot of optimism, but we’ve got a long way to go to be the team we want to be,” Yeager said. “We can tell that we missed spring training, but I am sure other teams are in … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant By Hoover football standards in the 21st century, it seems like an eternity since the Buccaneers won a state championship. In actuality, it’s only been since 2017, when the Bucs last captured the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 7A title. But Hoover didn’t advance to the championship game the past two seasons, the first time in 20 years the … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Homewood football coach Ben Berguson is pretty straightforward and not given to nuances. But when talking about the Patriots’ prospects for the 2020 season, Berguson gave a nuanced response. “Last year we were inexperienced, but this year we’re very young with only 16 seniors,” Berguson said. “We do have six starters returning on defense, which is good, and … [Read more...]