0714 Vestavia Hills football
Vestavia Hills’ Ben Cage (75) returns to anchor the Rebels’ offensive line.
High school football is a Southern tradition, and Alabama is one of its leading celebrants. It’s been that way for generations.
But this season finds Alabama high school football undergoing its biggest change in 30 years.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, by unanimous vote of its central board, has added a seventh class for the largest 32 schools in the state. This creates entirely new regional and class alignments, affects rivalries, travel, and most importantly, if your school will make the playoffs.
In the Over the Mountain area, the so-called “Region of Doom” returns in a slightly different form in highly competitive Class 7A, Region 3. Back-to-back Class 6A state champ Hoover – rated by some preseason sources as a national championship favorite – is grouped with sister Hoover school Spain Park along with Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Thompson, Oak Mountain, Tuscaloosa County and Hewitt-Trussville. Six of those eight, including Vestavia Hills, made the 2013 Class 6A playoffs; three were region champions. But only four of these teams will make the 16-field 7A playoff bracket in 2014.
“It doesn’t make a whole of difference to us, since we’re the largest school in the state, we weren’t going to be 6A,” said Hoover coach Josh Niblett. “We’re looking forward to it, we’re excited about it. Any time you get the chance to compete at the highest level for the highest honor, it kind of sets the stage for you gets the focus right for what you want to do.
“It’s kind of getting back to the old region we used to have, (Class 6A) Region 6, to a certain extent,” Niblett said. “You lose Pelham, but you pick up Tuscaloosa County. You pick Vestavia back up, not as a non-region game but as a region game. Vestavia-Hoover is always something special and I’ve always said that when we play each other we make each other a better team, a better program.
“Week in, week out, you’ve got to prepare, you’ve got to be ready to go. I always see it as the SEC of high school football within the state of Alabama.”
By the time Hoover and Vestavia meet in the eighth game of the season, Rebels coach Buddy Anderson will almost certainly be the winningest coach in Alabama prep football history. He sits one win behind Waldon Tucker. The Rebels open with Homewood on Aug. 29.
No other Metro Birmingham schools are in Class 7A. Removing Hoover – which has won eight 6A state titles since 2000 – cracks the door open for some other very good programs to make a run at a state crown.
This is the first major classification change the AHSAA has adopted since 1984, when the governing body increased from four classes to six. The remaining six classes were divided as equally as possible with 60 schools in 6A, 61 in 5A, 60 in 4A, 60 in 3A, 58 in 2A and 58 making up Class 1A.
This change affects all sports, but it’s King Football that has garnered the most attention.
“The seven-classification system will allow more student-athletes to participate in championship events and more will experience first-hand what it means to play in some of the best venues in our state,” Central Board President Lamar Brooks said. “With the addition of an extra championship game, revenues should increase, which will mean much-needed additional money for all schools through the AHSAA revenue sharing program.”
AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese said the seven-class system allows the organization to group schools more closely in enrollment, reduces the need for nine-team regions in football and has created fewer five-team areas in sports such as basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball.
“It also will allow more schools to make the state playoffs and will crown more state champions than at any other time in the history of our organization.”
In all classes except 7A, 32 schools will make the playoffs. The Super 6 Championships now become the Super 7. The championships alternate between Tuscaloosa and Auburn, and this year it’s Auburn’s turn.
The AHSAA Central Board also voted to allow football teams 11 weeks to schedule 10 games. Schools may elect to play a non-region contest the week of Aug. 21-22-23 and then have 10 weeks to play the remaining nine regular-season games.
Schools can still agree to play a non-counting jamboree or regulation game that first week but would then have the remaining 10 weeks to schedule the maximum 10 regular-season contests. This format will give schools more flexibility to schedule non-region games.
