Talking football
- Updated: August 17, 2021
AHSAA officials tout the new season, talk about inevitable transfers, flag football (at Oxford), basketball shot clock, Kickoff Classic
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
MONTGOMERY – Three weeks ago the football coaches from Talladega and Calhoun counties went to the head table at their respective media days and engaged in a spirited discussion about the rash of transfers that have significantly cut into their rosters.
The prevailing opinion out of those two days was the situation is “out of control,” and it will continue to escalate until the AHSAA steps in and does something about it.
But can the governing body do anything? Newly minted AHSAA executive director Alvin Brings was asked about it Tuesday and he basically said the organization’s hands are tied and player movement is inevitable.
“When you were 18 did your parents ever think about leaving the neighborhood?” Briggs asked. “Most people when we were growing up, most parents, they’re entrenched in their communities. Today’s families are not entrenched in their communities; they’re transient.
“They’re going here, they’re going there, they’re going to the next best thing, whatever that may be. How we control transit, I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s a way to control that. You can’t tell parents what to do. You can’t say you’ve got to stay in this neighborhood.
“It’s unfortunate that nobody wants to be community anymore. We all grew up and we all wanted to be in a community. No matter where we were, that was our community. You don’t see that these days. I guess what we’ve learned here you don’t keep tunnel vision, you have to look and see what’s going on. It’s a transient world.”
Oxford and Alexandria suffered major departures during the offseason. Other area teams have felt the sting in other years.
Players move in and out of programs all the time. It’s the impetus for that movement that troubles the coaches.
PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE: At the end of every sports season when a private school raises a blue state championship trophy – God forbid two privates play for the cheese – the debate invariably rages over separating them from pack.
The AHSAA has installed rules on how it counts private school athletes for classification purposes or bump them up in classification when they get too successful.
But that’s not enough for some. They want the privates out altogether, in a separate championship bracket. Briggs says that’s not going to happen.
“This is the 100th year of the association,” he said. “Seventy-eight public and private schools formed this association. How are we supposed to tell a founding member you’ve got to go now?”
“This association for 100 years with public and private has been a great association. To say that one is different from the other, you’re saying one is better, I don’t see how you can do that. We all have a chance to compete for a championship and that’s what we need to do. That’s what we’re founded on. Are we supposed to water it down just so somebody else can have a chance?”
OXFORD RAISING THE FLAG: Starting this week football is no longer a boys-only domain. The AHSAA added girls flag football to its lineup of sports in April. The games begin this fall and conclude with a one-classification championship game the Wednesday of the Super 7.
Fifty-seven schools across the state have declared to play the sport, with the heaviest concentrations in metro Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. Oxford and Anniston have raised the flag in Calhoun County. Oxford officials were meeting Tuesday night to iron out details and final feasibility.
Wes Brooks will be Oxford’s head coach, with Jake Hammond and Kathleen Ragains serving as the assistants.
“I think it’s going to be one of those sports that’s going to blossom,” Briggs said. “We’re in a football crazy state.
“I have a daughter who’s always been mad at me since we’ve done this because she would have loved to play flag football. I wouldn’t let her play tackle football.”
KICKOFF CLASSIC: Want to know how much the community is invested in Handley’s season-opening Kickoff Classic game with Guntersville Thursday at Cramton Bowl? Somebody got the day wrong on social media and it sent the town in a tizzy.
“It is important to us in Roanoke, Alabama,” Tigers coach Larry Strain said. “At one point on social media I think it had us playing on Friday and it was a big turmoil in Roanoke, Alabama. They were blowing my phone up trying to figure out exactly what day we were going to play and who we were going to play. Our community is definitely excited.”
Make no mistake, the defending 4A state champion Tigers open their season Thursday night. Bob Jones and Dothan play in the Friday game.
It’s a reward for last year’s success and gives the Tigers nine games, a welcome situation after playing only six regular-season games last year because of COVID-19 issues with opponents. It was so meaningful to the Tigers that as soon as the state championship game was over last year, Roanoke superintendent Chuck Marcum approached then AHSAA executive director Steve Savarese with a request to play in this game.
It’s a pretty big deal for Guntersville coach Lance Reese, too.
“There’s not a lot of new experiences that I can have in the game of football,” said Reese, a 31-year coaching veteran. “So when we got invited to come down and play in the Kickoff Classic it certainly excited me to have a new experience.”
The game has a chance to be an offensive show. Guntersville returns junior quarterback Cole McCarty (2,473 yards, 36 TDs); senior receiver Cooper Hawkins (50-600, 14 TDs); and senior back Logan Pate (182-1657, 23 TDs). Handley is led by title game MVP Tae Meadows, who ran for 2,183 yards and 33 touchdowns last season, 264 yards and four TDs in the championship game.
SHOT CLOCK UPDATE: The AHSAA plans to start polling its schools Wednesday on using a 35-second shot clock in varsity basketball starting in the 2022-23 season. Principals will vote on the proposal in January, pending Central Board approval.
Unlike instant replay for football, which is in the third and final year of its pilot study this year (extended by COVID), where only a handful of schools have it, if the shot clock is approved by 67 percent of 414 basketball-playing schools all schools regardless of classification will use it. The system is likely to cost each school between $2500 and $3500.
“It’s up to them, not us, whether or not we use a shot clock now that it is a possibility,” said Jamie Lee, AHSAA assistant director who oversees all AHSAA championship sports, corporate partners and contracts. “It’s all or none. … I don’t know why we need it in our game, but that’s where we’re going.”
EXTRA POINTS: The AHSAA’s sharp new digs off I-85 and across from AUM may be the organization’s HQ, but it could also be considered ‘the people’s’ house’ – they paid for it. Administrators looked to pay off the building in 10 years, but they attached an extra dollar on its playoff tickets and the note was cleared in three. The extra buck stayed on for a couple years and was used in the revenue sharing plan, but has since been removed and this year the AHSAA distributed $2.1 million to its member schools … The NFHS network that broadcasts AHSAA events has grown from 112 schools in 2020-21 to 343 this coming year … AHSAA associate executive director Kim Vickers was in Oxford Tuesday debriefing city officials on the state softball tournament hosted by Choccolocco Park for the first time this past spring. The AHSAA will give park officials a list of ideas to move forward next week.
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