Talkin’ Football
- Updated: August 13, 2024
With playoff drought over, a promising group of Pleasant Valley athletes expect to host, win in the playoffs in 2024.
Editor’s note: High school football practice starts this week, and East Alabama Sports Today editor Joe Medley has begun his annual round of preseason visits to football-playing schools in Calhoun County. Check out East Alabama Sports Today’s Facebook page for live interviews each weekday leading up to season openers. Columns and key facts will also appear at EASportsToday.com and related social-media platforms.
PLEASANT VALLEY — Thing just feel different, coming off of a season of firsts and drought-ending accomplishments.
The 2023 Pleasant Valley football team started 4-0 for the first time in school history. Injuries took their toll, but the Raiders ended a 13-year playoff drought en route to a 5-6 season.
Put that into a rising-tide context for boys’ sports at the school, and expectations become greater than ending futility.
“Winning a playoff game is what we’re looking forward to now,” senior tight end/linebackerJohnson said. “We got to the playoffs, but now we want to host a playoff game and win a playoff game.”
There’s a new day at Pleasant Valley.
It comes with a rising group of promising athletes like sophomore quarterback Braxton Salster, now entering his third year as the Raiders’ starter. A close-knit group stays together and plays together across multiple sports seasons, and something starts rolling.
That’s where the Raiders are, entering the 2024 football season and 2024-25 school year.
Girls’ sports, led by a defending state champion volleyball team and a perennial state-tournament softball team, still lead the way. Sparked by the 2018 cross country team’s breakthrough state championship, Pleasant Valley’s boys see possibilities.
‘Baseball was one out away from making it to postseason last year, and they’re working tough for next year, to finish stronger,” 10th-year Pleasant Valley football coach Jonathan Nix said. “Besides that, every one of our male programs made postseason.
‘If baseball would’e made it, it would’ve been the first time in school history that every male program at our school made postseason.’
It starts with the right group and athletes like Johnson, who majored in baseball but became a major contributor in football and basketball as a junior.
“I’m a firm believer that, if you start winning at one thing, then it should start breeding into the next, if you’re all buying into unity,” Nix said. “Our top three grades are only 185 kids, so we need everybody to do everything, and that’s the ingredient at Pleasant Valley. All of our athletes have to play multiple sports, and they have to buy into each other. If they do that, then all of our programs win. If you look at the history of the program, and when the program has had the most success, it’s when they’re pulling everybody together.
“In school that has 185 students in the top three grades, more boys are playing multiple sports.”
Right group, but also right time.
The 2022 reclassification dropped Pleasant Valley to Class 2A, and the most recent reclassification kept the school in 2A through the 2024-26 cycle.
Pleasant Valley no longer knocks heads against Calhoun County’s 3A powers.
Not that 2A comes easy. Pisgah, the favorite in the Raiders’ new region, made the semifinals in 2023 and comes into 2024 as a threat to go deep again.
But the rest of a region that also includes Cedar Bluff, Gaston, North Sand Mountain, Sand Rock and Section looks more wide-open, so why not Pleasant Valley?
It’s not like the Raiders just squeaked into the playoffs as one region’s No. 4 qualifier last year. They went 4-2 in region play and took the No. 3 spot, one spot out of playing host to a playoff game.
Pleasant Valley has played a home playoff game once in its history, way back in 1984. The Raiders lost to Ohatchee.
The next level becomes clear.
“Our goal is to win that game and not come up short,” junior linebacker Brayden Pappa said. “We want to strive to be the best we can each practice, each day, every single day.”
How confident are the Raiders? Nix scheduled an open date for Week 10, the week before the playoffs.
“Our expectation is, we are going to make postseason,” Nix said. “We’re not hoping to make postseason. Our expectation this year is, we want to host that playoff game, and that’s why we chose Week 10.”
Raider facts
Things to know about Pleasant Valley football heading into the 2024 season:
— Jonathan Nix enters his 10th year as Pleasant Valley’s head coach and 16th year as a head coach overall. He’s 29-62 at Pleasant Valley and 66-90 overall with four playoff appearances.
— The Raiders went 5-6 overall, 4-2 (third place) in Class 2A, Region 6 in 2023. The Raiders achieved their first playoff berth since making it three out of four years, between 2007-10.
—Key graduation losses from 2023 include the following All-Calhoun County players: OL Jeremiah Jones, DL Connor Crump, LB Samuel Duncan, WR/RB/LB/DB Holt Bentley, DB/QB/WR Bryce Freeman, OL/DL Will Walker.
—The following All-Calhoun County picks return: senior DB Hunter Sparks, sophomore QB/RB/LB/DB Braxton Salster, sophomore DL Jonathan Hanson, sophomore DB Nick Acker, sophomore RB/LB/DL/PR/KR Jaden Sparks. junior OL Wesley Wheeler, senior DL Andre Luster, sophomore WR Cooper Dugal, senior TE/DL Noah Johnson.
— Players to watch: Freshman DE Hayden Hardy, freshman WR/CB Dixon Duncan, sophomore OL AJ. Lockridge, sophomore OL Jordan Walker. Junior OL Josh Buse is back after tearing an ACL last season. Sophomore OL/LB Jeffrey Hughes stepped in after an injury to Will Walker in 2023 and returns with experience. Kaden Vick, who broke his leg in the 2023 jamboree and did not return until Week 9, will start at LB and back up Sparks at RB.
— The move down to Class 2A in 2022 proved beneficial to Pleasant Valley, and the Raiders stayed put in the new reclassification cycle. Playing in Region 7, they will align with Cedar Bluff, Gaston, North Sand Mountain, Pisgah, Sand Rock and Section for 2024 and 2025 seasons.
—Joe Medley
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