BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY –– The 2024 high school football season has come to a close, and it was an action-packed fall in Lee County.
Although none of the county’s schools mounted a state title run, two teams — Auburn High and Glenwood — stamped undefeated regular seasons. Six of those schools made playoff appearances and two marched past the first round of the playoffs. Both AHSAA newcomers — Lee-Scott and Glenwood — got off to hot starts and both notched, if not trumped, the .500 mark.
Many squads made instrumental strides in building a successful program in 2024, and the ones that didn’t are making changes to ensure 2025 holds brighter days. Here’s a brief reflection on each local teams’ season highlights and accomplishments this year.
Opelika High Bulldogs (8-2 regular season, second-round playoff loss)
Year one under head coach Bryan Moore was a revival for Opelika football.
Eight regular-season wins was the most the Bulldogs have had since 2020, and they notched their first winning season and playoff win since 2021. Opelika also stole a monumental win over eventual state champion Central-Phenix City to take the No. 2 seed in 7A Region 2. Its only losses came by a touchdown to undefeated Auburn, by nine at 6-3 Carver Montgomery and, brutally, a 32-29 loss to Hoover in 3OT to end its season.
The Bulldogs are graduating 30 seniors, including leading rusher Calvin Hughley (145 carries, 994 yards), leading receiver Jamari Miller (38 receptions; 553 yards; five TDs) and Auburn University commit — defensive end Malik Autry (16 QB hurries, 2.0 sacks). However, Moore will get to build on his relationship going forward with sophomore starting quarterback Colby Key, who completed 109-of-148 passes this year for 1,425 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“This year, our guys brought pride back to this program and joy to this city,” Moore said. “That’s the message that I got from so many people was that our community and our school system and our city were so excited about what happened this year, and they were there every step of the way. I’m just proud of the kids and the job that they’ve done.”
Auburn High Tigers (9-0 regular season, second-round playoff loss)
Auburn High and head coach Keith Etheredge don’t have to look too hard to find plenty to be proud of this season despite a 34-21 loss to Thompson in the postseason.
The Tigers’ 9-0 regular season was the first perfect season in program history, and it is Etheridge’s third undefeated season in 19 years in his career as a head coach. Their success surmounted to being ranked No. 63 in the nation among high school programs to end the year.
In Etheredge’s words, this team was special, and it took a lot of standout individuals doing unordinary things. One of those is junior running back Omar Mabson, who broke the single-season rushing touchdown record with 29. According to Etheredge, he also “has to be nearing” the career TD record, as he currently has 48 career trips to the end zone — 45 rushing and three receiving.
Auburn will have a lot to build on but also big production to replace in an “unusually small” senior class of 31 includes quarterback Jackson Kilgore, leading receiver Peyton Plott, and star defensive standouts La’Mychael Gunn and Caleb Pitts. Still, the Tigers have a lot to look forward to with seven starters returning on defense and six on offense.
“We had a great year, and you hate to end it the way we did, but we’re going to build on what we accomplished this year,” Etheridge said. “In 25 years I’ve been coaching, this is the first time I’ve gotten to coach a team that was ranked in the top 25 nationally. I had a great group of guys, great coaches — just really enjoyed this year. To go undefeated and win this region is a huge accomplishment.”
Smiths Station Panthers (0-10 season, missed playoffs)
Smiths Station had a rough year, to say the least, resulting in the firing of head coach Bryant Garrison.
An 0-10 season was a step back from a 1-9 record in Garrison’s first season leading the Panthers in 2023. Making matters worse, they lost every game by two touchdowns or more, capped off by blowout losses to thriving region foes – 69-15 to Central, 50-0 to Opelika and 70-6 to Auburn.
It might seem too soon to move on from Garrison after just two seasons, but keep in mind, Smiths hasn’t won multiple games in a season the past three years and it hasn’t enjoyed a winning campaign since 2018. It’s hard to blame the Panthers for acting in desperation.
The good news: there’s nowhere to go but up for Smiths Station as it searches for a path forward.
Glenwood Gators (9-0 regular season, first-round playoff loss)
Glenwood and head coach Ryan Nelson smashed down the gates to its AHSAA tenure in historic fashion.
Coming off an AISA state championship loss last year, the Gators quickly showed the AHSAA that their success in their previous classification was no joke. Glenwood was the only 3A team to go undefeated in the regular season, it took the top seed in the playoffs and won the region title in its first year in Region 4 with Randolph County, Beulah, Dadeville and Lee-Scott.
Better yet, Glenwood impressed in its non-region play by taking down two 5A teams — Valley and Sylacauga. They were also the only team to hold the state’s new leading rusher, Elba running back Alvin Henderson (over 10,000 career rushing yards), under 200 yards this season — holding him to 188 yards in a 49-22 win over 1A semifinalist Elba in week 2.
However, the Gators’ season ended early with a 46-42 loss to Alabama Christian Academy in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite 15 seniors graduating — including starting QB Levi Pinder, leading tackler Emory Davis and leading rusher Jermaine Brown – Nelson is excited about returning talent as well as the confidence those seniors have helped instill in this program for years to come.
“There’s a lot of people in our building who were frustrated about the loss (in the playoffs), but really as a program, we had a successful season,” Nelson said. “Our guys coming back are going to be hungry, and we’ll expect to be back in the playoffs again and get another shot at it. That’s life — there’s no other way to explain it.”
Lee-Scott Warriors (5-5 season, missed playoffs)
Despite a scorching 4-0 start to its AHSAA tenure, Lee-Scott had a tough finish to the season — going 1-5 down the stretch and narrowly missing the playoffs.
Coming off back-to-back state championships to end its time in the AISA, missing the playoffs was disappointing for the Warriors. They went 3-3 in 3A Region 4 but lost the tiebreaker for the third and fourth region postseason seeds to Beulah and Dadeville.
Still, head coach Buster Daniel was encouraged by the perseverance his team showed and sees a bright future ahead.
“Overall, I was pleased with our season,” Daniel said. “We had a couple of injuries in the middle of the season that kind of put us down, but our kids never gave up. They played hard every game; it’s just sometimes we were just outmanned. We know now going to next year what we’ve got to do and how we’ve got to play each week to be successful.”
The Warriors have a graduating class of 18 that’s leaving behind a legacy of two AISA state championship victories over rival Glenwood, a 13-0 season in 2022 along with a region title, and a 29-6 overall record. That class includes veteran starting QB Pelzer Reeves, key offensive weapons in Tyler Kennedy and Brady Cegielski, as well as star defenders like Sam Jackson.
“Those guys have been a great asset to our program and great for our school, just the things they’ve been able to do and accomplish over the last three years,” Daniel said. “We’ve got a lot of big shoes to fill.”
Beulah Bobcats (6-4 regular season, first-round playoff loss)
The 2024 season was another step in the right direction for Beulah under sixth-year head coach Matthew Johnson.
It was the second consecutive playoff appearance after the Bobcats made the postseason for the first time since 2018 (Johnson’s first season leading Beulah) last year. However, it has resulted in a blowout loss in the first round both times – this time, a 62-13 loss to Houston Academy.
Despite the early exit, it was still Beulah’s first winning season since 2018. Six wins was two more than it got last year and five more than 2022. In six seasons as head coach, Johnson’s overall record at Beulah is now 18-44 (.244).
A new stadium will await the Bobcats in 2025 as they look to continue improving on their winning ways.
Beauregard Hornets (5-5 regular season, first-round playoff loss)
Under fourth-year head coach Justin Jones, a young Beauregard team made its third straight playoff appearance.
Following an unprecedented 4-1 start, however, the Hornets fell flat. They finished the season 1-4 the remainder of the way before its season ended with a 30-20 loss to Eufala in the first round of the postseason. After a four-game win streak, the turning point in the season seemed to be a 28-27 loss to Andalusia.
The future is bright for the Hornets, nonetheless.
They haven’t missed the playoffs since Jones’ first year at Beauregard — which was only the second time in 20 years Jones missed postseason berth in his career as a head coach. Despite having an unusually small senior class of 12, this team also went 4-2 in 5A Region 4 and clinched the No. 2 seed in the region behind Central-Clay County.
“When you have no expectations because of the number of new starters on the team but then you come out of the gate and play really well against really good (opponents), expectations grow all of a sudden but the roster [hasn’t changed]. We were still playing kids who hadn’t played a lot of Friday night football,” Jones said. “In the off-season, we’ve got to figure out what things we can do better, as a program, to make sure we finish strong.”
Loachapoka Indians (5-4 season, first-round playoff loss)
First-year head coach Branden Hall led Loachapoka through a year of adversity, but the team learned how to fight in the present with the past in their hearts.
The Indians played this season with the tragic loss of 16-year-old linebacker Javion Gary, who was shot and killed in an incident in Notasulga on Aug. 8, weighing on their hearts. But after a 1-4 start, Hall’s squad responded to the challenge he presented by finishing the regular season on a four-game win streak.
“The whole thing was we were 1-4, and we were like ‘Alright, we’re going to treat those like preseason games…’ I asked them what our record was — it was 0-0,” Hall said of his team’s mid-season turnaround. “I gave them a list of games we had left including the state title and just told them we’re trying to go 1-0 each week. So after a few weeks, people asked me what our record was, and I was like ‘We 3-0.’
“Just resetting and refining ourselves — I think that helped us out a lot.”
Because of the late-season revival, Loachapoka made the playoffs in its first season since its move to the AHSAA 2A classification from 1A. Despite a 14-7 loss to Ariton in the first round, the senior class of 13 finished their high school tenures with a 24-8 record, with Quintavious Nelms finishing as Loachapoka’s new all-time winningest QB.
Loachapoka left a legacy of resilience and honor this season off the field as well by playing in memory of Gary, who wore number 18 for the Indians. Gary’s teammates wore his number engraved on the back of their helmets this season, they prayed in a circle around his helmet before games and often broke huddles by chanting “18” or “family.”
“It was like he was right there with us the whole season,” Hall said of Gary. “I wish we could’ve went a little bit deeper in the playoffs for him because I know he’d want to go all the way and win the whole thing. It didn’t work out that way, but we never forgot. He was with us the whole season, and he’ll be with us again next year.”
