‘The SEC West of high school football’: Half of Class 7A, Region 3 teams under new leadership

First-year Vestavia Hills head coach Robert Evans recently saw a ranking of the toughest public high school football regions in the entire United States, and his region was included.

“This is the SEC West of high school football,” Evans said of Class 7A, Region 3. “I would tend to agree with it.”

The region includes Thompson, Hoover, Hewitt-Trussville, Oak Mountain, Vestavia Hills, Spain Park, Chelsea and Tuscaloosa County.

Evans is in his first year leading the Vestavia Hills program. So are Wade Waldrop at Hoover, Tim Vakakes at Spain Park and Todd Cassity at Chelsea. All are experienced across the state. Evans has coached as an assistant at Oak Mountain, Hoover and Mountain Brook. Vakakes led the Jackson-Olin program for nine seasons. Cassity has been the head coach at Gordo and J.B. Pennington, and the offensive coordinator at Pleasant Grove.

Chelsea is the Class 7A newcomer, having been in 6A since 2012.

“We’re going to go against teams who have more players, probably a lot more to pull from, but you can still only put 11 out there,” Cassity said. “Just approach it in that way, something that’s good. It’s a positive. Now, we get to play with the big boys, we get to see how good we actually are, and take it that way.”

It’s an interesting time in Region 3. Josh Floyd at Hewitt-Trussville has been in the region the longest, since 2014. Thompson head coach Mark Freeman came a year later. Tuscaloosa County’s Adam Winegarden and Oak Mountain’s Tyler Crane were new to Region 3 a year ago.

“It might be new faces where they are, but they’re not new faces in the state,” Vakakes said. “It’s different, but at the same time the communities are still the same, the programs are still the same. It’s kind of hard to study film on teams that you don’t know what they’re going to be like. I’m sure there’s going to be some early wrinkles from some of the new teams, new faces and all that. Again, after a while it’s going to turn into just playing football and being consistent and doing what you do.”

Cassity and Vakakes are the lone two of the new four without 7A experience. Evans coached at Hoover for eight years and at Mountain Brook for four years, two of which when the Spartans were in Class 7A. Waldrop has been in 7A as a head coach since its inception, from 2013 to 2020 at James Clemens and at Florence last season.

“The state championship is rolling through a place like Region 3,” Waldrop said. “That’s how it is. An opportunity to win a region here, you will have an opportunity to win a state championship. I think that’s something that all coaches want to be able to say they have an opportunity at. We’re excited about being here, understand the challenges and what lies ahead.”

Waldrop led James Clemens to three playoff wins against Class 7A, Region 3 teams. He was 3-7 overall against Region 3 teams at James Clemens and Florence in the playoffs.

“You had to pay attention [to Region 3],” Waldrop said. “If you wanted to win a playoff game, you had to know what was going on here.”

Cassity said that despite not coaching a 7A game he’s been a “connoisseur” of Alabama high school football for a long time. He’s recorded Thursday games to watch on Saturdays. He watched Josh Niblett when he led Hoover. He’s attended 7A playoff games to “enjoy the speed of the game.” Now, he’s a part of it.

“Just take it day by day and go be successful on Monday, go be successful on Tuesday and all the way to Friday,” he said. “If you keep building those blocks, eventually good things are going to happen. That’s the way we’ve got to approach it. We’re approaching it from, ‘Let’s go win today and let tomorrow happen when it gets here.’”

Vakakes graduated from Homewood High School, so he understands the programs in this region. He admitted to struggling against Evans’ pitching on the baseball diamond when both played high school baseball.

“I’m very aware of the region,” he said. “It’s a lot of really good players, lot of really good coaching staffs and lot of really good programs. It’s going to be fun every Friday night. We’re not going to back down. I promise you that.”

Not backing down is a sentiment that Evans echoed.

“Attack. I don’t know anything else,” Evans said. “We’re going to attack the region. I love the fact that we play Thompson first because I want to see where we stand immediately. We

won’t back down from anyone, and I firmly believe that.”

Class 7A, Region 3 offers breaks for no participant. Vestavia Hills opens at home against Mountain Brook and Homewood, then begins Region 3 play against Thompson before traveling to Hoover and Spain Park. Spain Park, after opening at home against Calera, plays three straight away games against Briarwood Christian, Hoover and Thompson. Five of Hoover’s final six games in 2022 are away, at Hewitt-Trussville, Mountain Brook, Oak Mountain, Tuscaloosa County, Chelsea and Thompson. Chelsea, in addition to the Region 3 gamut, plays non-region games against Helena, Calera and Pelham.

“You really can’t treat any game differently,” Waldrop said. “I know that’s coachspeak and everybody says it, but if one game starts becoming more important than the other game, then you’re going to jeopardize yourself in that game and the next game. It’s really understanding the process of how to approach each week. I think if your mentality is right on the approach, then the Friday night stuff takes care of itself. But if it starts becoming about this team or that team or this game or that game, I think that’s when we can really start getting into trouble with a really tough schedule.”

Evans said a goal in 2022 is to play three-time defending state champion Thompson twice.

“I know those dudes are going to be there somewhere in November,” he said. “The question is, will we? I think we have a legitimate chance if things fall our way to be in there and play those guys a second time. The climb to the top is exciting. Where we are right now, in this middle to lower part of the region, the climb to the top is going to be exciting. I have no idea when we’re going to get there, how long it’s going to take, but once you’re to the top that’s a hard thing to do.”