Coach’s Corner Week 4
I once heard an old coach say “there’s two things in life every man thinks he can do better than another man: grill, and coach football”. I had to laugh because Coach’s know this to be so true. At any time on a Friday night you can hear shouts of “run the ball” or “throw the ball” or the always hilarious “block somebody”. As if the offensive line coach isn’t already pulling his hair out trying to figure out how his 175 lb freshman left tackle is going to secure backside B gap when they run power. If you are a parent reading this, I can guarantee you no matter how bad you want to win, those coaches on the sideline want to win more. While you may think they are clueless I guarantee you that you would not last five minutes in a staff meeting. So leave the coaching to the coaches and cheer our great athletes on, okay?
Central Phenix City: One of our esteemed writers T.P. Hammock wrote a great article this week on the Central and Auburn rivalry. This was one a lot of people circled as the biggest game of the week. Coach Flournoy and staff at Central needed a key win they could hang their hat on for the beginning of their tenure in Phenix City. After just skating out of Opelika with a close win they put a hurting on the Tigers by a margin (42-10) that I completely did not see coming. With that big hurdle out of the way we will see how Central continues to develop the rest of the year to see if they could possibly be a challenge to Thompson’s 6A dominance.
Pell City: What happened in Pell City this off season has been well documented and discussed. I am not here to re-litigate that. What I do want to talk about is how they played this week. After a bumpy start to the season interim Head Coach Erik Kuykendall had quite the task with a really good St. Clair County team. The Panthers hung in there with the game ending with them winning in double overtime. With the schedule easing up a bit we will see if this is what Pell City needed to jumpstart the second half of their season.
Oak Grove: Not a lot of people know about the Oak Grove Tigers, and you definitely should. Coach Musso and his staff have quietly been building a year in, year out contender in West Jefferson County. They took care of region foe Dora this week 33-14. The Tigers are quietly 4-1 with their only loss coming to a great Winfield City program in a over one hundred point thriller. Keep an eye on the Tigers, with their funky single wing offense and a well coached defense they could absolutely be a problem for teams to deal with in 4A come playoff time.
Handley: Handley decided they were going to start their season with all the college programs and took two bye weeks to begin the season. But when Handley did take the field on September 3rd they looked like the state powerhouse that we know them to be. So far through three games they have outscored opponents 129-34. Looking at the rest of their schedule it seems to be pretty favorable to the Tigers. They will definitely be a contender to win 3A now that the private schools are gone. There also could be a very interesting game shaping up on the 16th of October against Childersburg. That game could possibly be for the region title???? Who would have thought?
