AISA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Evangel Christian looking for its first football title

Coach Darius Dixon leads the Evangel Christian Academy Lions into the AISA 8-man championship game on Thursday at Cramton Bowl. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

The Alabama Independent School Association will be holding its 2022 state football championships at Cramton Bowl, adding the 8-man division to its A-AA-AAA lineup for the first time.

“We have fans and spectators and teams that will come spend a whole day watching multiple games,” AISA executive director Michael McLendon said. “Eight-man football has been around the state for a long time, but there’s a lot of people who haven’t watched it or experienced it. We’re hoping that adding the game to the other three classification championships will allow us to showcase 8-man football a little and show people what it’s about.”

Springwood School and Evangel Christian Academy will kick off the day’s championships at 10 a.m. Springwood School, coached by first-year coach Joey Burch, has been a traditional power in the organization, winning four state championships and reaching the finals on 11 occasions. But the school’s declining enrollment and athletic participation resulted in just one winning season in a 10-year stretch before the school ditched 11-man football in favor of the 8-man version this year.

AISA administrators, seeing a rise in 8-man teams in other parts of the Southeast, decided to offer the sport as an alternative to programs such as Springwood and Evangel that have struggled to put competitive 11-man teams on the field. 

“It went really well for the first year,” McLendon said. “I think there was a lot of excitement around the season for smaller schools that were teetering on having programs or not. Springwood School is an example of a school that has not had a lot of success in recent years and they’ve had a lot of excitement injected into the program.”

Evangel Christian went through seven consecutive losing seasons before former athletic director and football coach Andy Whatley disbanded the team in 2019 in an effort to build support for the following year. When he continued to see low numbers, he switched to an 8-man program in the Alabama Christian Education Association. Second-year coach Darius Dixon guided the Lions to the ACEA finals last year and the AISA finals this year.

“It’s a blessing to come back and be a part of the AISA,” Dixon said. “We’re thankful for the opportunity. It’s a stepping stone in the right direction to get back to 11-man. We’ve had kids come and watch a game or two and be excited about the football atmosphere and have talked about joining us next year.”

The opportunity to be a part of a high-profile championship setting at Cramton Bowl is inviting for 8-man programs, particularly at Evangel where several of the players have participated in sporting events at the facility before.

“It’s a cool experience,” Dixon said. “Some of the kids on the football team are excited about it. Some of them grew up playing in the (YMCA) little league, which made it to the championship and got the opportunity to play at Cramton Bowl. Some kids we have transferred in from public schools and they had the opportunity to play at Cramton Bowl, so getting to go back and play at their former home field is a good opportunity as well.”

The opportunity to showcase 8-man football on a statewide level could lure other teams to the AISA brand in the future.

“It’s really a program that exists so we can offer it to schools interested in participating in it,” McLendon said. “There are also some schools out there that have been playing 8-man football throughout the state and they may look to it as a competitive league that they want to be a part of.”

Springwood (7-3) has dominated the first year of AISA 8-man, averaging 41.6 points per game. Two of the Wildcats’ three losses were to non-AISA members. Springwood defeated Evangel 52-32 in a regular-season meeting on Sept. 2.

“They’re very disciplined up front and on the back end,” Dixon said. “Their coach has done a good job with their team and that program as well. We just have to put our best foot forward and execute the plays.”