Thompson, Spain Park, Briarwood, Vincent ranked in preseason football top 10

Published 5:01 am Wednesday, August 7, 2024

: The Thompson Warriors, Spain Park Jaguars, Briarwood Christian Lions and Vincent Yellow Jackets will all start out the football season in the top 10 of the preseason media rankings. (File)

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The start of the high school football season is now less than three weeks away, and the Alabama Sports Writers Association has tabbed four county teams to be among the state’s best once play kicks off.

The Thompson Warriors, Spain Park Jaguars, Briarwood Christian Lions and Vincent Yellow Jackets all earned spots in the top 10 of their respective classifications with the release of the preseason media rankings on Wednesday, Aug, 7.

A fifth team, the Helena Huskies, received votes but fell short of the Class 6A top 10.

Thompson will enter the season as the No. 2 ranked team in Class 7A thanks to 192 votes, including seven first place votes. The Warriors are ranked behind just Central-Phenix City in the poll after the Red Devils secured 207 votes and the remaining 12 first-place votes.

Thompson finished the 2023 season as the runners-up in Class 7A with its only losses coming to state champions, Class 6A’s Clay-Chalkville in the regular season and Central in the Class 7A state championship game. It will be led by a pair of All-State players in safety Anquon Fegans and quarterback Trent Seaborn as it goes for a fifth state championship in six years.

After reaching the top 10 of Class 7A last season, Spain Park enters the season in the top five of the Class 6A media rankings. The Jags will come in as the No. 5 team after receiving 101 votes, putting it behind Saraland, Parker and a pair of reigning champions in Clay-Chalkville and Gulf Shores.

Spain Park went 7-3 in 2023 and just narrowly missed out on the playoffs in Class 7A, Region 3. Now, quarterback Brock Bradley and the Jags will look to make the most of a drop to Class 6A and navigate a crowded Region 3 to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Their new region-mates Helena received 12 votes in the preseason rankings but fell short of the Class 6A top 10. The Huskies earned the 12th most votes of any team in the classification after reaching the second round of the playoffs in 2023.

Another team that will drop to a new classification is Briarwood, and the Lions will start their return to Class 5A with a number next to their name. Briarwood was No. 7 in the preseason rankings thanks to the 53 votes it received from the media.

The Lions went 6-6 in Class 6A, Region 3 last season but made it to the second round of the playoffs where they fell to eventual runners-up Saraland. They will now make their return to Class 5A, Region 5 to battle Ramsay, John Carroll, Corner and others for a spot in the playoffs.

Vincent rounds out the group of county teams in the preseason rankings after the Jackets earned the No. 8 rank in Class 2A with 56 votes.

In 2023, Vincent returned to the playoffs once again but finished 6-5 and in fourth place in the region. The Jackets will look to an experienced core to navigate a challenging Class 2A, Region 5 that now includes two other preseason top 10 sides: No. 4 Tuscaloosa Academy and No. 10 Sulligent.

One change from previous years of the media rankings is that the ASWA will now only rank the top five AISA 11-man teams as opposed to a full top 10. This is because the AISA shrunk to just two 11-man classifications with 22 total teams competing in 2024.

The rankings were also compiled last week ahead of multiple coaching moves across the state, including Hoover’s decision to put first-year head coach Drew Gilmer on administrative leave on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

To see the full preseason rankings, read below:

The preseason Alabama Sports Writers Association high school football rankings with first-place votes, last year’s win-loss record and total poll points:

CLASS 7A

2023 champion: Central-Phenix City