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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Shelby County Wildcats may have had one of the stranger seasons in recent memory in 2023.

Despite posting just two wins on the year, the Wildcats found themselves in the postseason by virtue of a coin flip as neither they, Selma or Marbury could win a game down the stretch to break the deadlock at the bottom of Class 5A, Region 3.

It’s become clear in the months since that first round loss to Eufaula that simply making the postseason and going 2-9 wasn’t good enough for Shelby County.

Coach Zeb Ellison has been relentless in making changes to the roster and culture ahead of his fourth season in Columbiana. From parting ways with a good chunk of his roster to ramping up the intensity in practice and workouts to even opening up a quarterback competition, no stone has been left unturned.

However, that change hasn’t come without a purpose. Both the players and coaches believe this team is better and more dedicated than the one that had its second-straight losing season in 2023.

It starts with a foundation of stars, and Shelby County’s is as strong as anyone. Despite losing a pair of key players in Bradley Horton and Micah Swain, the Wildcats have a trio of defensive playmakers in Cooper Pennington, Eli Holliman and Eli Carlisle back and ready to lead the way.

In addition, the offense is just now stepping into its own as upperclassmen with Anthony Palmieri, Devan Alexander, Ethan Hall and a highly-touted offensive line.

However, to take advantage of those offensive weapons, Shelby County will need a play-making quarterback.

Ryan Sipes was asked to do a lot as a freshman and sophomore in the starting quarterback role, and the Wildcats hope that either his experience as a now three-year junior starter or the fresh addition of Presley Duke can spark an offense that hasn’t averaged over 15 points per game since 2021.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that Shelby County’s region just got a good deal harder due to reclassification.

While Demopolis has been head and shoulders above the rest of the region for some time now, the other four teams in the region were fairly weak, meaning the Wildcats had less of a battle to make the postseason, as shown by the three-way tie at 2-3 for third in the region last year.

However, that’s changed. The six-team region is now seven, meaning Shelby County will have to beat out an additional team to make the playoffs, and coming in are Montevallo, Sipsey Valley and Northside, three teams with playoff pedigree at Class 4A in recent years.

Granted, none of those three teams are guaranteed to make a seamless transition to Class 5A, but it’s hard to argue the region did not get stronger in reclassification. The question is, did Shelby County get stronger with them?

Internally, it certainly seems that way with Ellison’s team galvanized in a way that could lead to more success. The foundation is there for this program between the culture and the top-end athletes, but now it’s up to this group to determine if it can build on that with on-field improvements or continue the shortcomings of past teams.

 

Prediction: 3-7. It was an open question down the stretch last season if the Wildcats would be able to take their fate into their own hands and break through a wide-open region and into the playoffs.

Now, the same question remains, but with three new teams entering the region to replace Holtville and Marbury, it’s going to be more of an uphill battle to get into the postseason.

That means Shelby County needs to fix some of the problems that led to losing campaigns in the last few seasons, namely helping the offense find a second gear in important moments while limiting damage on defense.

A 1-3 record in one-score games shows that opportunities were there for this team to get back to .500, and the hope internally is that the young players who had to go through those tough losses both in 2023 and 2022 will be able to use that experience to get over the hump.

To maximize the impact of their returning playmakers though, they’ll need to prevent injuries, something that has plagued this team each of the last two seasons, and with less depth than last year, that limits the number of available options should someone go down.

Time will tell whether Ellison’s culture changes lead to improvements on the field, but with a difficult slate of opponents in front of them, it’s hard for me to be optimistic after the last few years.