By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

For the first time since the preseason poll was released there are two Shelby County teams in the ASWA top 10 polls in Week 7. Spain Park, a week after shutting out previously 7A top-ranked Hoover, jumped from No. 8 all the way up to the second-ranked team in the class, and received four first place votes to boot, making the Jaguars the highest ranked team in the county this season to date. Montevallo also could not be denied a seat at the table any longer after a 52-28 win over West Blocton, and the 7-0 Bulldogs are now ranked No. 9 in 4A.

Montevallo was ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll in 2009, back when Montevallo was a 3A school, before promptly falling to 0-2 that year. The Bulldogs have not been ranked in the regular season since 1999, when they were the seventh-ranked team in 4A after Week 1 before losing in the second game of the year to Maplesville and subsequently falling out of the rankings for the rest of the year.

The No. 2 ranking is the highest in the history of the school for Spain Park. The Jaguars have been ranked as high as third on a few separate occasions, including the preseason of 2005, Week 1 of 2011, the preseason of 2014 and Week 3 of 2014, but have never ascended to a No. 2 ranking until now. The Jaguars are ranked second only to Bob Jones, which is now the only undefeated team left across the state in 7A.

A week after suffering its first loss of the season, Chelsea still received two votes in the 6A poll. The Hornets fell to the No. 3 team in 6A Opelika, and were on top of the Bulldogs at the half before Opelika asserted itself in the second.

The only other team to receive votes in the Week 7 poll was Calera with a single vote in the 5A poll. The 5A poll has proven tough to crack for Calera, as the top 10 teams in the Week 7 poll have just five losses between them.