South Alabama Sports

  TUSCALOOSA — The young men who got their butts caramelized by sitting on a sizzling football field and looking up at Ryan Williams on Saturday were audacious and maybe a little ahead of themselves, as Williams has always been with opponents, when they were asked a somewhat provocative, teasing question. “How many of you are faster than Ryan?” The hands of seven campers went up faster than Williams can run the 40. It’s doubtful seven SEC cornerbacks would have…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD When Johnny Carpenter walked into the first weightlifting session with his new Washington County High School football team only a month before the 2022 season began, what he saw made him cringe, at least inside. Nine players showed up looking as if they were puppies who had been kicked by a steel-toed boot — understandable, since they were on their fourth coach in seven years and had won just four games in the previous two years,…

    By ARTHUR L. MACK Vigor High four-star offensive tackle Micah DeBose has one big expectation for the 2024 football season. “The end all and be all is to win state because we’ve worked way too hard and we’re still working,” the 6-foot-5, 315-pound DeBose said. “It’s constantly a non-stop thing. We want to win state. We’re going to win state.” DeBose has been there before as a big part of the Wolves’ 2021 Class 4A state championship team…

By ARTHUR L. MACK Vigor High School head football coach Markus Cook was fired Thursday, according to the Mobile County Public School System. “Today, Markus Cook was relieved of head football coaching duties at Vigor High School,” MCPSS director of communications Rena Philips said in a statement. “Vigor administrators met with coach Cook, the football players and coaches today and will meet with the parents soon. The Wolfpack will continue its summer conditioning as scheduled, while the search for a…

The Super 7 state football championships will be the most significant sporting event in Mobile’s history if it can join in a rotation with at least two other cities. Mobile’s chances were enhanced Wednesday when the Alabama High School Athletic Association finally made the long-expected announcement that Bryant-Denny Stadium and Jordan-Hare Stadium were being removed as Super 7 sites so those arenas will be available for the expanded College Football Playoffs. The odds are good for the Super 7 to…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD In all the history of Millry football — and it goes back almost 100 years, just about the time power and lights first came to the small rural town — there has never been a period in which it has been so starkly electrified only to have the breakers maddeningly tripped than in the last three years. The Wildcats have enjoyed the most successful span in school history under alumnus and coach Shane Hendry, going 29-9 even…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD SEMMES — There are two small yet massive numbers that truly matter to Shondell Harris. Zero, as in no mistakes and no defeats. And 1, which represents his place in the hierarchy of Mary G. Montgomery’s quarterbacks, the place he wants the Vikings to finish when the season is over and the measurement of the small margin which still gnaws at him and likely kept MGM from beating eventual state champion Central-Phenix City in last…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — Heath Harmon, the man who will direct the metamorphosis of Alabama high school sports during one of its most ground-rattling periods, faces extraordinary demands. “It’s never easy but right now, with NIL and transfers, there’s a lot of stuff out there coming, boys or girls — some things we probably don’t know about yet,” said UMS-Wright’s Terry Curtis, the winningest high school head football coach of all time in Alabama and the incoming…

The three living former AHSAA executive directors appeared Thursday with the newly appointed Heath Harmon. They are, from left, Dan Washburn (1991-2007), Alvin Briggs (2021-2024), who is retiring on Sept. 1), Harmon and Steve Savarese (2007-2021). (Jimmy Wigfield/Call News)       By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — With NIL deals for teenagers clawing at the state’s borders and players transferring from school to school in unbridled flight, Heath Harmon agreed to step into one of the most problematic periods in…

“We’ve got the best quarterback in the country.” Saraland coach Jeff Kelly on K.J. Lacey       By JIMMY WIGFIELD SARALAND — K.J. Lacey cannot stop time, much as he might want to, but he comes close to neutralizing it on the football field despite the frenetic hostilities surrounding him. Given Lacey’s computational speed and scorching release, he doesn’t need much time. Oddly enough, his development is expanding rapidly even as the calendar required for it compresses at the…