PREP MEDIA DAY 2021: River Region teams look to return to normalcy
By TIM GAYLE
Twenty-five high school coaches and 55 players met with the media on Tuesday at Garrett Coliseum for the second annual River Region Sports Media Day.
The annual meeting was sponsored by American Klassic Designs (AKD), Farmers Market Cafe, Larry Puckett Chevrolet, Montgomery Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Phoenix Physical Therapy and Sam’s Club.
Many of the players will be included in future editions of the area’s newspaper and television stations, while some were included in radio segments aired on location by WTLS-FM.
Last year’s inaugural meeting was thrown together with COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing, a venture into uncharted waters that continued for the 27 local high school teams which struggled through the forfeiture of 31 games, affecting the schedules and playoff aspirations of 16 local teams.
“Last year, I feel like it set everybody back a year, maybe two,” Stanhope Elmore coach Brian Bradford said. “Everything we did so well the year before, the team atmosphere, family, playing for each other, now we spend a year telling them to stay away from each other and not have those relationships. Now, you’re totally shifting the focus. I feel like it created more problems than just sickness last year.”
Bradford’s team made it through the 2020 season without having to forfeit games because of contact tracing. Several teams, including Robert E. Lee, Lowndes Academy, Marbury, Billingsley, Holtville, Pike Road and Prattville Christian, lost much-needed revenue from the cancellation of home games. Others, such as Autaugaville and Tallassee, missed out on the playoffs because of region forfeits at a crucial stretch in the season.
The damage from COVID-19, as Bradford pointed out, was deeper than just illness and forfeitures. Private schools enjoyed tremendous success last year, with Alabama Christian Academy and Trinity reaching the quarterfinals of the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs, Montgomery Academy reaching the semifinals and Catholic reaching the finals, while Edgewood and Macon East reached the semifinals of the Alabama Independent School Association playoffs. Still, it’s hard to know whether enrollment at some of those schools may be affected by COVID’s effects on the economy and the work force.
“The season was not what we wanted, but we were just glad to be playing football,” Autauga Academy coach Bobby Carr noted. “We lost a ton of kids because of COVID, parents couldn’t afford tuition, and we just had to piece a team together.”
This season, while COVID remains a concern, it was less on the minds of the coaches who are ready to build on the success of 2020 or rebuild from sub-standard performances last season.
Six of the team representatives arrived on Tuesday with new head coaches, including Alabama Christian’s Michael Summers, Carver’s Marcus Gardner, Catholic’s Kirk Johnson, Marbury’s Hayden Stockton, Prattville’s J.B. Wallace and Prattville Christian’s Norman Dean. Each spoke in optimistic terms of what they expected from their players this fall.
Then, for many of them, it was back to their respective schools to resume practice. For AISA schools and those AHSAA schools who didn’t hold a full spring workout schedule, football practice opened this week. For the remainder of the AHSAA schools, their workouts this week are voluntary, with organized preseason practice starting on Monday.
The first games are set for Aug. 19.