ALL-CCC: ACA's Clark highlights top players in Capital City Conference

Alabama Christian’s Jalen Clark was picked as the 2020 Player of the Year in the Capital City Conference. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

The 2020 season was a history-making moment for the Capital City Conference.

Never in the history of the conference had all five football teams reached the state playoffs. Four of them reached the quarterfinals. One played for a state championship.

That much success, obviously, was the result of good coaching and the performance of good athletes, perhaps the greatest collection of talent ever in the conference. It made choosing an all-Capital City Conference team difficult for the coaches. 

When it was time to select a player of the year, every team had at least one quality player that could have been selected with little dissension but two players generated more comment -- Alabama Christian Academy quarterback Jalen Clark and Catholic receiver Myles Butler.

Clark produced more than 3,000 yards of total offense and produced a highlight reel every week in leading his team to the quarterfinals of the 4A state playoffs. Butler recorded a staggering 1,382 receiving yards despite splitting catches with a teammate and suffering a broken wrist in the final regular season game. He missed one game and came back to lead his team to the 3A state finals. 

For his unique contribution to a team’s success, Clark was chosen as the player of the year. Despite having an experienced group of talent surrounding him, the senior who is committed to Louisiana-Lafayette had a hand in 59 percent of his team’s plays and accounted for 65 percent of the Eagles’ total production.

“At this level of football, you only have what you have,” Alabama Christian Academy coach Nate Sanford said. “When you have a special player, you do what you can to maximize them without becoming too one-dimensional. We really tried to do both of those things -- maximize what Jalen could do without getting to the point where we relied on him too much. But the farther you get down the road … our best guy is going to have to do it more than we prefer, but that’s just the situation we’re in.”

Clark completed 115 of 183 yards for 1,794 yards and 21 touchdowns with just three interceptions this year. He also had one catch for 28 yards and a touchdown. On the ground, he carried the ball 178 times for 1,311 yards and 25 touchdowns, averaging 7.4 yards per carry (a remarkable number when sacks are factored into the yardage).  

“He would extend plays,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “He’d go back to pass and would just run around. When you drop your coverage to cover the receivers and all of a sudden he’s got 20 yards of open grass, he was really good in space. He had speed and range and could move well. He was a handful.”

In all, he was a contributor in 362 of ACA’s 614 plays this season and accounted for 3,133 of the Eagles’ 4,829 yards. More than that, Sanford said, Clark was the inspirational leader to the team, classmates and even ACA fans on Friday night.

“Jalen is such a neat human,” Sanford said. “He’s so effervescent. He just made the game fun for him, for his teammates and I’d even say for his opponents.”

Just as selecting a player was extremely difficult, so, too, was picking the coach of the year. Robert Johnson installed a new offense and defense in his first year at Montgomery Academy and took his team to the semifinals before losing in overtime to Catholic, a team he had beaten earlier in the year. After guiding his 13-1 team to its first semifinal appearance since 2002 and the most wins since 1987, he was selected as the 3A Coach of the Year by the Alabama Football Coaches Association. 

Sanford led his Alabama Christian team to its first-ever region title (since the region format was adopted in 2000). The Eagles reached the quarterfinals for the fourth time in school history and tied a school record for wins in a 10-3 season.

Granger Shook’s first year as Trinity’s coach resulted in the Wildcats finishing as region runner-up to Catholic and reaching the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010. Trinity finished 10-3 with two losses to Montgomery Academy and one to Catholic, the most wins since 2010.

Aubrey Blackwell did something no one thought was possible at Catholic by leading the Knights to the 3A state championship game. Along the way, the 12-3 Knights tied a school record for wins and won its third region title in the last four years while becoming only the third team ever from the Capital City Conference to reach the finals.

Because Johnson and Blackwell made such a significant impact on the conference in the same season, they were selected as co-coaches of the year.  

2020 All-Capital City Conference Football Team 

OFFENSE

WR -- Jake Hufham, Sr., Trinity

WR -- Myles Butler, Sr., Catholic

WR -- D.J. Carter, Sr., Catholic

OL -- Will Chandler, Sr., Trinity

OL -- Cole Bender, Sr., St. James

OL -- Dean Johnson, Sr., Catholic

OL -- James Snead, Sr., Montgomery Academy

OL -- Will Wright, Sr., Alabama Christian

QB -- Jalen Clark, Sr., Alabama Christian

RB -- Cosner Harrison, So., St. James

RB -- Jashawn Cooper, So., Montgomery Academy

RB -- Jeremiah Cobb, So., Catholic

ATH -- Hayes Hunt, So., Alabama Christian

PK -- Alex Kohn, Jr., Montgomery Academy

 DEFENSE

DL -- Sam Worthington, Sr., Trinity

DL -- Marcus Dees, Sr., Catholic

DL -- Jackson Kelly, Sr., Montgomery Academy 

DL -- Thomas Kirkham, Sr., Montgomery Academy

LB -- Walton Cherry, Sr., Trinity

LB -- T.J. Dudley, Jr., Catholic

LB -- Patrick Ryan, Jr., Catholic

LB -- Miller McCarthy, Sr., Alabama Christian

DB -- Coleman Ellis, Sr., Trinity

DB -- Kylon Griffin, Jr., Catholic

DB -- Jamal Cooper, Jr., Montgomery Academy

DB -- Carter Wallis, Sr., Montgomery Academy

P -- Britton Kohn, Sr., Montgomery Academy

Player of the Year -- Jalen Clark, Alabama Christian Academy

Coaches of the Year -- Robert Johnson, Montgomery Academy; Aubrey Blackwell, Catholic

HONORABLE MENTION: Barr Armistead, DL, Jr., St. James; Jaevon Augustus, DL, Jr., Catholic; Preston Berry, P, Sr., Trinity; John David Bonner, QB, Sr., Trinity; Clayton Craft, LB, Jr., St. James; Otasowie Dion, RB, So., Alabama Christian; Tyson Eley, LS, Sr., St. James; Grayden Flowers, PK, So., Trinity; Jonathan Harris, DB, Jr., St. James; Holt Harrison, PK, Sr., St. James; Robert Huffaker, OL, Jr., Montgomery Academy; K.J. Jackson, QB, Fr., St. James; Chase Letner, RB, Jr., Trinity; Judson Lindsey, LB, Jr., Montgomery Academy; Sanders Manning, DB, So., Alabama Christian; Mac McClinton, DB, Jr., Trinity; Caleb McCreary, QB, Fr., Catholic; Demari Moore, WR, Jr., Alabama Christian; Taylor Penney, OL, Sr., St. James; Jim Portis, LB, Sr., Trinity; Gabe Russo, P-PK, So., Catholic; Trey Schlemmer, LB, Jr., Alabama Christian; Avery Stuart, DB, So., Alabama Christian; Trent Taylor, OL, Jr., Catholic; Jack Thomas, LB, Jr., Alabama Christian; Aaron Treubig, PK, Sr., Alabama Christian; Will Wales, DB, Sr., St. James; Nigel Walker, TE, Jr., Montgomery Academy; Hudson Whitt, DL, Jr., Montgomery Academy; Ky Williamson, LB, Sr., Trinity; Bradley Woodham, DL, Sr., St. James.