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A time to practice
From staff reports
The Weekly Post
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Published July 30, 2009
The season of hope is here.
All across the state, high school volleyball squads will start practice today (Thursday) and football teams will begin practice Monday and right now, every team has visions of championships.
Volleyball
As usual, every team in the area will be chasing Geraldine, which has won six consecutive DeKalb County championships.
The Bulldogs have missed the last two Elite Eight state championship tournaments, however, after reaching that round of the playoffs for seven straight years.
The Bulldogs won the Class 2A state title in 2001 and finished second in 1999 and ’05.
In 2008, Danville defeated Geraldine in the sub-state round of the playoffs.
Plainview may be close to coming into the state picture, with two former high school standouts — Skyla Clark Gray and Shasta Dingler Norwood — coaching. The Bears won the 2008 county title in junior high volleyball.
Football
Out of 389 football-playing Alabama High School Athletic Association member teams, only six will win state championships but there are other championships to be won along the way. Then there are region titles, county championships, and rivalry wins; and for some teams, just having winning seasons will seem like a championship of sorts.
Here’s a quick peek at the teams in The Weekly Post coverage area, in alphabetical order. This is only a glimpse — more information will be forthcoming in the Aug. 27 edition (which by the way is the date of the season opening games).
One change this preseason is the limiting of practice in pads. Teams may still practice twice a day but now one of those practices must be held in t-shirt and shorts.
Collinsville
Allen Beckett will be starting his third year at the helm.
Last season, the Panthers went 6-5, making the playoffs for the first time since 2001. That year, Ernie Willingham was the head coach and in 2008, he skippered Appalachian, the team that put Collinsville out of the postseason in the first round.
Last year, the Panthers got off to a slow start, losing their first three games but rebounded to win their final four of the regular season.
In 2007, Beckett’s first season, Collinsville went 3-7.
Crossville
The Lions welcome new coach Bill Smith. Keith Garner, who Smith replaced, won only seven games in three seasons.
Smith was the head coach at Vina for the past nine years, accumulating an 18-70 mark.
Prior to that, he was at Sulligent. His Blue Devil teams went 16-18 in three seasons, making the playoffs twice. His head coaching career began at Red Bay, whose teams won 31-of-36 games in three seasons. In 1990, the Tigers made it to the semifinal round of the playoffs.
Smith’s overall record is 172-147.
Fyffe
Head coach Paul Benefield has recorded a 161-41 record since 1992, coaching at Fyffe and Sylvania. He became chief Red Devil in 1997 and has won 116-of-146 games.
In 2000, the Red Devils went 5-5 and missed the playoffs for the only time in his tenure. They rebounded strong the next year, going undefeated until the third round of the postseason.
Last year, Fyffe went 9-4, marking the first time this century it didn’t win at least 10 games.
The high-water mark was 2007. That season, the Red Devils finished 14-1, losing to Leroy by a score of 25-20 in the Class 2A state championship game. The Red Devils outscored their foes by an astounding 716-217 points in 2007.
Geraldine
When Tim Arnold took over at Geraldine in 2006, the Bulldogs had been struggling (by their standards) for a number of years.
The prior season, they went 4-6 and hadn’t made the playoffs since 2001. Only once in that time did Geraldine break the .500 mark.
In ‘06, the Bulldogs went 5-5, then made the postseason and finished 6-5 in ‘07.
All that was capped by a sterling year in 2008. Geraldine had its finest season since the semifinal year of 2000, finishing with a 9-2 mark.
Along the way, there were benchmark wins against Fyffe, Sylvania and West End — three teams that had given the Bulldogs trouble of late. The only regular-season loss was to Sand Rock.
The playoff loss, to Woodland, was only by a 26-20 score.
Ider
Brent Tinker was a great quarterback at Ider but his coaching fortunes haven’t been as good as his playing days — yet.
He got the head coaching job in 2004, fresh out of college. His first team went 2-8.
In five seasons, he has a 12-38 record, including three straight 3-7 finishes.
Hopefully, things are looking up for Ider, however. There are signs that the down years may be coming to an end.
Last season’s first two games were lost by a total of seven points. Had those two games swung in favor of the Hornets, a 5-5 record would’ve been a great confidence booster heading into this year.
North Sand Mountain
After winning 11-of-21 games in Rob Hannah’s first two seasons, the Bison dropped to 2-8 last year.
There were some close games, including a 17-14 loss to Section and an 8-6 setback vs. Pisgah.
However, North Sand Mountain went 0-7 in region play.
That season led to the hiring of Tracy Vest as head coach. Hannah moves to Ider, where he will be head baseball coach and an assistant football coach.
Pisgah
Terry Kenimer appears to have the Eagles headed in the right direction.
After two losing seasons — with records of 1-9 and 2-8 — Pisgah made the playoffs in 2008, finishing 6-5.
A break here or there could’ve made the record better. The loss to Section was only by a 19-15 score — then the Eagles had the bad luck to draw eventual state champion Leeds in the first round of the postseason.
Pisgah learned how to win at home, going 5-0 earned only a 1-5 mark on the road.
Plainview
Dale Pruitt is still trying to recapture the playoff magic at Plainview. During the 1990s, the Bears went to at least the third round seven times, including two state championship appearances and one semifinal. Pruitt coached at Plainview through the 2000 season, which was also a quarterfinal year.
Since then, the Bears haven’t won a second-round game but have made it that far four times.
Pruitt came back to Plainview for the 2006 season.
Section
Jeff Monroe took over the Lion program for the 2006 season and promptly took the team to the quarterfinals, ending with an 11-2 record.
The playoff loss was to Woodland, which absorbed a 12-7 loss to Leroy in the state championship game.
The next year, Section went 6-5, then dropped to 4-6 in 2008.
Worse, the Lions won only one region game last season.
Sylvania
The Rams enter Alan Clayton’s third season as head coach looking to improve on a season that looked a lot like the glory days.
His first Sylvania team went 4-6 but the Rams improved to 8-4 last year.
Two of last season’s losses — to Susan Moore and Geraldine — were close enough that a break here or there could’ve resulted in a Sylvania victory.
Valley Head
Tiger fans hope that last year was an abberation, as the team won only three games in Heath Kirby’s third season at the helm.
Valley Head had winning records in his first two seasons, including a 9-3 mark in 2007.
Even last year, three of the losses appeared to be close enough that the Tigers could’ve taken home the win, had the ball bounced their way.
But again, this is the season of hope and right now, there is hope aplenty in every football stadium across the state, as no team has yet to record a loss.
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