PREP MEDIA DAY RECAP: Stories spun during event's fourth year
Coach JB Wallace and members of the Prattville Lions speak to media during Tuesday’s event at Garrett Coliseum. (Tim Gayle)
By GRAHAM DUNN
The fourth-annual River Region Sports Prep Media Day was a success even if only viewed as the opening of high school football in the state.
But it’s better to celebrate by looking ahead to the upcoming season, which is what coaches and players got to do on Tuesday.
It also signaled the return of several top players and a couple of teams looking to repeat as state champions in St. James and Lowndes Academy.
The majority of the 28 teams from the River Region took part in the event at Garrett Coliseum with several media outlets in attendance.
Here are a few stories learned from the event along with a few allegories thrown in.
New coaches get their intros
A total of seven new coaches were scheduled to be a part of Tuesday’s Prep Media Day at Garrett Coliseum.
That number includes one coach changing within the River Region in Granger Shook, who left Trinity Presbyterian to go to Pike Road High School.
“The color scheme is very similar but it’s been very exciting,” Shook said. “Everybody is buying in. Our players have won before. I give the past staffs credit. This has been a winning program. Not trying to reinvent the wheel but trying to put our name on it as a new staff and focus on what we know that helps a team be successful.”
Shook left Trinity after three seasons. He takes over from Ed Rigby, who lasted just one year at Pike Road.
“(It was a) tough decision,” Shook said. “We prayed about it but we felt like this is where the Lord was leading us. Getting linked into a growing city, I feel like we can impact that community.
“Everybody has high expectations but nobody has more expectations that I do for myself,” he said.”I left a place where they’ve won state titles and I’ve left a place that has been dominant for 20-plus years in playoff experiences.”
The Patriots finished 7-5 last season after winning the Class 5A state championship under Patrick Browning. He left for Greenville but has since left for an assistant’s position with Alabama State.
Last time for Lee-Lanier
The end of an era will take place in the first week of the season when Robert E. Lee and Sidney Lanier meet for the last time…. In Wetumpka.
Due to a scheduling snafu, the oldest rivalry in the city of Montgomery had to be moved and will be played at the new Wetumpka Municipal Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25.
It is the last meeting for two reasons. Next year Lanier will be integrated into the G.W. Carver school system while Lee will have a new name - Percy Julian - at some point in the coming months.
“It’s the end of an era and I know there are a lot of people in the city of Montgomery that this series means so much,” stated Lanier coach Derone Fagan. “I know the kids have enjoyed this rivalry and really like playing in it. But we know this will be the last time and that certainly makes it special.”
Lee and Lanier have met at least once every year since 1957. The two schools have played a total of 68 times.
“A lot of history,” Lee coach DreQuay Everett said. “I was a part of it and so many others were. It’s sad it has to end.”
Football newcomers
The local media was introduced to the newest sport in the AHSAA.
A couple of years ago, girls flag football became a sport and in. The last two years, several local teams offered the sport to its students..
That number increases this season with schools such as Prattville High School entering the Frey.
Several of the players for the Lady Lions were on hand on Tuesday to discuss the school’s first team.
“We can’t wait to see what happens,” stated the Lady Lions quarterback and wideout Kaytie Chandler. “It’s new so we will see. We are just trying to create chemistry.”
“The girls had a good time,” Prattville coach Brian Pittman said of Tuesday’s event. “They enjoyed doing the hosting and being a part of it. Everyone of them thought it was a neat experience to be included. They especially liked seeing some of the football players they knew, but also getting a chance to talk with (WSFA Sports Director) Rosie (Langello). It was just a good day for them and for the River Region.”
Players from Catholic’s flag football team were also on hand. The Lady Knights took part in last year’s season and will return for 2023.
(Not) showing your wares
The two-time state champion Lowndes Academy came to the RRS Prep Media Day without their title trophy in tow. But the pride was showing in different ways.
“It’s great,” stated quarterback Clayton Hussey. “We’ve set the goal again.”
“It is (hard to do),” senior Cooper Dansby said. “Now we’ve got that target on our back. So it’s not an easy task but I believe we can do it.”
Coach Shane Moye and his team could be the first in school history to win three in a row. But it’s too early to start printing playoff tickets.
“That first one is always the sweetest,” Moye said. “Our goal last year was to go back-to-back and we succeeded. But now everybody knows how we attack and they played their best against us every game.”
Getta Gator
Elmore County offensive lineman Jonathan Thames isn’t sure what lies in his future as far as the game of football is concerned. But he has a good idea what he will be doing once he finishes high school.
Or at least during off weeks during the season.
“He goes down to Wilcox County and goes gator hunting,” ECHS coach Kyle Caldwell said. “He can’t wait to get down there.”
To prove his point, Thames showed off his alligator belt he was wearing during Tuesday’s media event.
“I made it myself,” Thames said with a grin.
The senior said there was an art to catching gators, particularly the big ones.
“You get a great big fishing pole and 150-pound test line and bait it,” he explained. “You got to know when to snap the line. But I’ve been enough so…”
Thames said his father once caught an 11-foot alligator but the tail had been bitten off. So it could have actually been longer.
Caldwell as well as Thames’ teammates say they will not be joining him on his trips to the south part of the state.
“I was like, ‘man, we have a lot of guys down in Sweet Water area but I am never going to try that,’” Caldwell said.
Whenever the Panthers have an off week, Thames will be headed back to the swamp.
“I will be down there.”