Photo: The West Point Warriors will face off against Hamilton on Aug. 19.
CULLMAN – Preparation for the 2016 football season begins Monday when the first day of fall practice is allowed by the Alabama High School Athletic Association.
Six of the eight teams in Cullman County will have two and a half weeks to prepare for the first game. The season kicks off Friday, Aug. 19.
This is the third year the AHSAA has placed it in its rules that prep teams can kick off their schedules with a regular season game and not have to take part in a jamboree. Each team must have an open date in their schedule, with the regular season being 11 weeks long.
The Cold Springs Eagles and Cullman Bearcats are the only programs to start on what has been called "Week Zero" by some the last two years. Now the Fairview Aggies, Holly Pond Broncos, Hanceville Bulldogs and West Point Warriors join them in playing on the third Friday in August.
Good Hope and Vinemont will wait to start the season until the following week, with the Raiders and Eagles to meet one another at James Shabel Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 25.
As the teams will spend the first three days of fall practice in shorts and helmets, plenty of questions step up for the new football season locally.
Reclassification took place back in January with new regional opponents across the board for Cullman, Fairview, Good Hope and West Point. Cold Springs, Hanceville, Holly Pond and Vinemont see half of the new regional teams and teams they have been playing in regional games for the last two years.
Here is a breakdown of what each team in Cullman County is looking at for the 2016 football campaign.
Cold Springs: The Eagles have the best regular season record in the last three years at 20-10. They have never had four straight seasons of six wins or more. That is what the Eagles are shooting for in 2016, with Cold Springs in Region 7 of Class 2A. Season opens with Hanceville at home Aug. 19. Region opener is Sept. 2 at home vs. Tarrant.
Cullman: The Bearcats were taken out of Region 8 in Class 6A that included Muscle Shoals, Florence, Austin, Decatur, Hartselle and Athens. The Bearcats will deal with schools in Region 7 such as Albertville, Brewer, Fort Payne, Southside-Gadsden, Oxford and Pell City.
The Bearcats kept Hartselle on the schedule and moved the game to opening night, Aug. 19 at J.P. Cain Stadium. Cullman's first assignment in the region will be Sept. 2 at Albertville.
In 15 seasons with Mark Britton at the controls, the Bearcats have qualified for the AHSAA playoffs 13 times. Britton is the winningest coach at CHS with 124 victories.
Fairview: The Aggies are trying to focus on the gridiron without the Dafford Smith Stadium issue getting in the way. School officials are hoping construction work will be completed in time for the Aggies to play at Fairview Aug. 26 vs. East Lawrence. A backup plan has been considered in case the stadium is not ready for fans to sit in the bleachers and football to return to Fairview for the first time in three years.
The Aggies have six new opponents for Region 6 of Class 5A. They are Corner, Curry, Mortimer Jordan, Springville, Hayden and West Point. George Redding enters his 10th season at his alma mater and is eight wins shy of passing Dafford Smith as the winningest coach in Fairview history. Smith compiled 65 victories between 1986-96. Redding has 58 going into the season opener Aug. 19 at North Sand Mountain.
Good Hope: Alan Scott eyes a second year at home with the Raiders that is loaded with talented teams from Class 4A, Region 6. The Raiders are placed in the region with Fayette County, Cordova, Dora, Hamilton, Haleyville and Winfield.
The Raiders will play a jamboree game with Susan Moore on Aug. 18 and officially begin the season a week later (25th) with a Thursday night affair at Good Hope vs. Vinemont. Good Hope goes into the regional schedule on Sept. 2 at Fayette County.
Hanceville: New coach Craig Flanigan came on board July 19 and has been working on getting a staff ready plus having a series of meetings with his personnel. Flanigan returns to his alma mater and brings positive energy that he hopes will be absorbed by the team immediately.
The Bulldogs will have to study Flanigan's system right away to get accustomed to it when Hanceville travels to Cold Springs Aug. 19 for the season opener. Hanceville is in Region 6 with Fultondale, J.B. Pennington, Locust Fork, Susan Moore, Holly Pond and Vinemont. The Bulldogs will open up the regional schedule at Fultondale Sept. 2.
Holly Pond: Coming off their first win that ended 29 consecutive losses, the Broncos will be looking for more. Now that they have accomplished a win for Mike Bates and have experience, the Broncos want to show Region 6 of Class 3A they will be a team to watch on Friday nights.
The fourth season for Bates opens up in Gadsden on Aug. 19 at Coosa Christian. Holly Pond comes to Thomas-Michelfelder Field for the region and home opener Sept. 2 with J.B. Pennington.
West Point: The Warriors have their sights set on a third straight winning season and playoff berth in Class 5A. The Warriors will be part of Region 6, a change for them after the last two years they were in Region 8 with Russellville, East Limestone, Lawrence County, Ardmore, St. John Paul and Columbia.
Don Farley's Warriors have a first time opponent in Hamilton coming to West Point Stadium on Aug. 19. The Region 6 opener is at Hayden Sept. 2.
Vinemont: The Eagles are eager to improve on the victory side after earning just one last season, which was Matt Norris' first at Vinemont. The Eagles will mix it up in Region 6 of Class 3A with the region opener to be at Mark Smothers Field Sept. 2 vs. Locust Fork. The Eagles start their 46th year of football on Aug. 25 in a game at Good Hope. Both began the sport back in 1970. This will be the 45th meeting for the two, the most games ever played by Vinemont against one opponent.
The Cullman Tribune / Cullman Sense looks forward to the 2016 season with plenty of coverage of our county teams from each week of the regular schedule and also in the postseason. We wish each team the very best of success this year.
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