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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

For the Thompson Warriors and the Spain Park Jaguars, the 2023 season ended in setbacks in different ways.

Thompson fell short of its ultimate goal of a fifth-straight Class 7A state championship, putting the Warriors in the unusual position of not finishing the year on top. As for Spain Park though, for as much as the Jags rallied to win their final five games and finish 7-3, it wasn’t enough to crack the Class 7A playoffs, and that was soon followed by a move down to Class 6A.

Both programs came into 2024 needing a response, and for both Thompson and Spain Park, it came straight from the top.

Thompson coach Mark Freeman steered his team through a season of adversity to win another state championship, and Spain Park coach Tim Vakakes continued his transformation of the program with its first undefeated regular season ever and first playoff wins since 2015.

As a result, both men can claim the honor of Shelby County Coach of the Year for their incredible leadership during the 2024 season.

Freeman had preached for years leading up to the 2023 state title game defeat to Central-Phenix City that championships are not for granted and each team needs to work hard to get back to the mountaintop, no matter how talented they are or how many stars they have next to their name.

Many of the players learned that lesson for the first time in 2023, and it stung to lose. Some felt like another team was taking their place on top and that they needed to go out and take it back.

Freeman worked to quickly put last year’s setbacks behind him and the Warriors. Within a couple of weeks of the loss, Thompson got right back to work, putting in time over the offseason to make sure that the pain of defeat would not happen again.

However, the Warriors had a big turnover from the previous season. While multiple key pieces like Trent Seaborn, Mike Dujon and Anquon Fegans were back, the offense would need to replace its top three receivers, lead running back and multiple offensive linemen while the defense was without talented stars like Kaleb Harris and Jayden Davis.

Some of that help did come in the form of transfers, but on both sides of the ball, Thompson had to look inside its own walls to its talented group of young underclassmen to step up in big ways.

As a result of having so many new players, the offense took some time to gel together as Freeman tried multiple receivers to see who would click together in place and create a cohesive, explosive offense like the Warriors had a year ago.

Over time though, Thompson got back to its high-flying self. And the ones who helped Trent Seaborn were not who you would have expected at the start of the year.

By the time the state championship game rolled around, sophomore Darion Moseley and freshman Dedrick Kimbrough were the Warriors’ two top receivers, complemented by a veteran who stepped up in a big way in Pryce Lewis. All three possessed great playmaking abilities and got enough chemistry with Seaborn to where they could pick out his difficult throws.

That took care of the pass game, but Freeman knew they needed a strong run game to reach their full potential.

Enter RJ Evans, who became a more than capable complementary back within the Thompson backfield. Mike Dujon then stepped up as the lead back and had multiple statement performances, including a massive game at Lipscomb Academy in Week Two behind a strong offensive line.

That was paired with a consistently well-coached defense led by defensive coordinator Shawn Defoor, which gave the Warriors a reliable unit to fall back on during hard times.

And hard times they did endure. Only three points separated Thompson from a perfect season as they endured overtime heartbreak not once, not twice, but three times.

Freeman said after the season that those losses tested their resolve and their faith as doubts creeped in from inside and outside the locker room that they would fall short of a state title once again.

However, Freeman’s steady leadership helped the Warriors do what they have made a habit of doing: peaking in November and December.

After falling to some of the region’s top teams throughout the season, Thompson took care of business in the playoffs, dominating the state’s No. 1 team on the road in Auburn and then neutralizing one of Alabama’s best offenses in Central-Phenix City in the state title game.

That put the Warriors back on top of the mountain and gave Freeman his 11th state championship of his career. His work over the past 12 months to transform the team into the undisputed best team in Alabama makes him more than worthy of another Shelby County Coach of the Year award.

Vakakes’ work with Spain Park made him just as deserving though even though Spain Park didn’t join Thompson as state champions.

The Jags not only had to deal with the crushing feeling of both missing the 7A playoffs and being removed from 7A entirely, but they lost multiple top offensive and defensive playmakers, including their two best receivers and one of their best running backs.

Vakakes had confidence in his players’ work ethic and togetherness. As they blocked out the external noise telling them they would be immediate favorites in Class 6A, they worked hard enough to make those predictions a reality.

From the opening game, Spain Park’s offense reached a new level, relying on new playmakers like Corey Barber and CJ Cowley to complement returning players like Brock Bradley and Dakarai Shanks, who all hit a new level in 2024.

The Jags used a high-flying but balanced offense to score 36.6 points per game, a far cry from the 17.1 points-per-game offense that Vakakes inherited when he arrived after the 2021 season.

During the year, that offense faced plenty of adversity from some of the state’s top teams like Hoover, Helena and James Clemens in the regular season along with McGill-Toolen Catholic and Russell County in the postseason.

When opponents took out one aspect of their attack, Vakakes simply pivoted to the other, leading to an offense that rarely lost a step and powered past opponents, whether in blowout fashion like their final five wins of the regular season or at the wire on the road in Hoover and Helena.

Vakakes often likened his team to heavyweight fighters, and they stepped up and performed in crucial moments to keep racking up wins.

In the end, the Jags reached historic heights, earning their first 10-0 regular season in school history, first region title and playoff win since 2015 and first trip to the playoffs since 2017.

Vakakes’ team built on last year’s success to go on a 17-game unbeaten run between the final five wins of 2023 and first 12 of 2024. At the time, it was the second-longest active streak in the state behind only Montgomery Catholic, now the two-time defending state champions in 4A and 5A.

It took an extremely talented Saraland side to neutralize Spain Park, but not before the Jags made it all the way to the quarterfinals, making a statement about their program just three years removed from the depths of 2-8.

Vakakes’ transformation of Spain Park is nothing short of phenomenal and in no way finished with multiple key players like Bradley and Cowley coming back next year. It’s a testament to the power of hard work and belief in the players inside your school, and it’s incredibly deserving of his first Shelby County Coach of the Year award.

Many coaches made selecting this award difficult, including Shelby County’s Zeb Ellison and Calera’s Scott Rials for their unbelievable turnarounds of their respective programs in 2024.

However, Freeman and Vakakes separated themselves with their success in the biggest moments of the playoffs, cementing them as this year’s top coaches.