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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

After coming so close to breaking their playoff drought, the Spain Park Jaguars hope that this is the season they return to the postseason and make another run at glory.

However, for the next two years, they’ll be doing it in Class 6A. Spain Park was just 11 students short of staying up in Class 7A, which sent shockwaves throughout the locker room.

The Jags very much wanted to stay in the state’s highest classification, but coach Tim Vakakes knows that the decision was out of their hands and he wants the team to focus on what they can control instead.

“I think initially, knee-jerk, we were all kind of like, ‘Man, we want to stay up there and play the Hoover’s, the Vestavia’s, all the teams that these kids have always played growing up,’” Vakakes said. “But again, those two factors that we have no control over moved us down, and we’re still playing some really good football teams, really good communities.

“Like I tell people, ‘The region we’re in, the communities care about football,’ and I live in Helena, so I know how much they care about football. So, when we go to Helena, we’re going to be walking into a hornet’s nest. I know that. Whenever we get off that bus, we’re going to be swinging.”

That’s just one example of the culture that Vakakes has built since arriving at Spain Park in 2022. He has led a transformation that saw the Jags log their first winning season since 2017 in 2023.

To him, the secret sauce is simply surrounding the talent that has always been at the school with good coaches who can help them become even better people.

“I don’t think there’s any secret,” Vakakes said. “I think that we have good football players. I think we surround these kids with a very good coaching staff who they’re very good coaches, but they’re very good people and I think that that consistency of just surrounding kids with good people, positive things happen.”

This year’s team is no different with a talented foundation bolstered by a new wave of rising talent ready to take the spots of Spain Park’s departing players.

On offense, the Jags will have one of the most highly touted quarterbacks in the state in junior Brock Bradley. On top of having great arm talent that he showed last season, he’s become a great leader for the team.

Even though Bradley is just entering his junior year, teammates like receiver Mitchell Frazer said he is the key to making the offense go.

“Having Brock is a blessing,” Frazer said. “He’s super talented and he glues our offense together. He’s super smart. He’s a good guy. I think this year we’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing and I think everything will work out.”

Frazer will be one of the leaders of a receiving corps that lost key contributors from a year ago, including All-State Second Teamer Jonathan Bibbs. He said the unit has done a good job of becoming a more cohesive unit, partly thanks to their development in Vakakes’ system.

“I think our receiving corps, we’ve been in the system for a while and we’ve got everything down,” Frazer said. “We just keep working and we’ve got a lot of young guys that have been able to get reps this summer, which helps with depth. I think we’ve just done a really good job of coming together as a receiving corps, and I think it’s going to be fun this year.”

The passing game will be complemented by another dynamic duo in the backfield, this time with rising star speedster CJ Cowley pairing with Dakarai Shanks after his older brother Derick graduated last year. Both will play behind an offensive line that is developing into a capable unit to round out the offense.

The defense also has some questions to answer at multiple positions after losing impact players, but like the offense, they have veteran leaders to help bring the younger pieces along.

Brayden Matherson credits their development to the senior class ahead of them that showed them the way to lead.

“We’ve come along pretty good from the spring through summer workouts and 7-on-7, secondary’s starting to come together,” Matherson said. “Everything’s starting to piece together the formations, coverages. We’re all starting to get it. We had a great senior class last year that we all got to learn from and to step into those roles, we’re all coming together as a defense.”

Arnold Bush will be one of the key members of that secondary as the lone returning starter. With lots of new faces around him, he’s been teaching them just like the seniors before him did and returning the favor to the next generation.

“I’m just trying to do the same thing the guys before me did, trying to help them out, take them slow, show them the ropes and just try to give them live reps, just coach them up on what to do, what not to do and just how to hold yourself as a player,” Bush said.

That younger generation has been very receptive to the teaching that they have received from the coaches and the senior leaders.

Aden Walker, uniquely positioned as both an experienced senior and virtually a new addition after his recovery from a broken leg in Week 2, is encouraged by the players behind him and the character that they show.

“They always come in and they show up, they take tips,” Walker said. “They’re a lot more coachable than I was, I’ll say that. They’ve always been great.”

While both the defense and offense have holes to fill, the new starters are still upperclassmen who are products of Vakakes’ selfless culture and motivated to make an impact even if they have less in-game experience to this point.

It’s that culture that the Jags will rely on once again as they face a new test in Class 6A, Region 3 that, while they’ll be favored to finish highly in it, won’t be easy with perennial playoff contenders and county rivals stacking the ranks.

To take them down as well as a tough Class 7A non-region schedule which still includes a road showdown with Hoover, Vakakes believes they’ll need to show the toughness that got them to this point. If they fight hard and play selflessly, he likes their chances.

“Every heavyweight has their favorite punch, and it’s a good one,” Vakakes said. “Some great, but the champions have chins, and I feel like what we do on a day-to-day basis creates our chins. So, no matter if we’re coming out at home, no matter if we have to go travel and get off a bus, I feel like our kids are going when the whistle blows, they’re going to start swinging.

“So, I fully expect that to happen, win or lose, hopefully we can play well enough, and hopefully coaches don’t mess them up, and hopefully they go out there and win in spite of the coaching. But I do feel like you’re going to see a team that comes out there fighting. ”