GOOD HOPE, Ala. — Football season is right around the corner, and all of our local teams are gearing up for another season on the gridiron. In Good Hope, Alan Scott will be entering his 10th season as the head coach of the Raiders, and he’ll have experience returning on both sides of the ball this year. Scott saw a lot of encouraging things from his team during their spring game and during summer workouts. He’s looking forward to seeing their hard work pay off when they kick things off later this month.
“A majority of our offensive and defensive returners were starters last year,” Scott said. “The number one thing that we want to do is compete. In the spring game, we played Fyffe and Vinemont in both halves. I thought our guys played really well. It was a good chance for us to play some really good competition. They didn’t back down, and from a defensive standpoint, I was really pleased with our effort, intensity, and our tackling. Throughout the summer, we’ve just tried to get bigger, faster, and stronger, do all of the little things right, and try to help ourselves be ready to compete this fall.”
Scott added,
“Fyffe has been kind of the standard in high school football for the last 10 years. Coach Benefield and I have been friends for a long time, and we finally got the game together. We got our wires crossed a little bit, so that’s why we played them in the spring,” Scott said. “We are actually going to play them week 0 for four quarters here coming up. We played them for a half. We played the varsity for a quarter, and it was 7-0. Then, we played the JV for a quarter, and it was 7-0, so I thought our guys hung in there with them.”
Good Hope will be in a new region this year, and the schedule will present some new challenges for the Raiders.
“We’ve been over there with Oneonta, Cherokee County, and Etowah the last several years, and they did move us west. Dora, Cordova, Curry, Fayette County, Hamilton, Haleyville, and Fultondale stayed in there with us, so it’s interesting. Some teams moved up from 3A, and a lot of those teams that are in our region have competed against each other for the past couple of years, so we’re kind of the new kid on the block,” Scott said. “I see a lot of parity in our region. In the offseason, I’ve really tried to watch a lot of film, any that I can get my hands on from the opponents that we’re going to have this fall. They’re well-coached. The programs all have great histories, so I think it’ll be a real dog fight to try to come out of there and get a playoff spot.”
One of Good Hope’s assistant coaches on staff, Taft Dillashaw, was inducted into the Cullman County Sports Hall of Fame this summer and Scott shared how much Dillashaw has meant to his own football career as both a player and a coach.
“I played Junior High football, around either 1991 or 1992, and Taft was there. He had been there, you know? That wasn’t his first year. All I’ve ever known about Good Hope football, he’s been involved in it,” Scott said. “He coached me there. He coached me through high school. He was really hard on me, but I love him. I really do. He was really hard on me, but he was trying to get everything he could out of me. When I became a coach, as a young coach, he was a guy I would call. As a defensive coordinator, if it was something I hadn’t seen before, he and I would try to figure it out together. When I was at Vinemont, there was no team that I wanted to beat more than Taft and Good Hope, but now that I’m at Good Hope, I’m thankful to have been able to work with him for the last 10 years in my role now. He’s just a blessing.”
Coach Scott has seen the seniors and juniors take on leadership roles during the preseason, and likes the way they younger guys have followed their example.
“It’s going good so far. We’re trying to stress leadership at Good Hope and have been since I’ve been there. Each team elects seven young men that they want to represent the team, and Hank Hudson and Tyler Cone will be two of them that will represent the team,” Scott said. “They’ve done a great job of trying to make sure that these young guys kind of know the ropes, and they are holding the expectations and the standards up, so that they don’t slip. The young guys are following well, too.”
Two of the seniors on this year’s team, Hank Hudson and Tyler Cone, feel like the team has really bought in to the goals that they are building towards this season and are looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish together.
“When we come to work, we know what we want to do,” Cone said. “We all have a goal, and everybody follows along with the leaders, so we want to be good leaders that the young guys look up to. That’s what we like to have.”
“Coach Scott has done a really good job this summer in teaching us how to be leaders, especially during our two-day camp that we had. I felt like everybody’s doing a good job in leading the younger guys, and I think everybody’s bought in, and they know what we want to do this year,” Hudson said. “Before the games, we like to listen to music, get a little pumped up. Normally, right after that, all of the coaches will give us a pre-game speech about the scheme, then coach Scott will get us fired up. Then, we’ll say a quick prayer, and we’ll go out and play the game.”
2024 Good Hope Raiders Football Schedule
Aug. 30 – @ West Point
Sept. 6 – vs. Fultondale*
Sept. 13 – @ Haleyville*
Sept. 20 – @ Cordova*
Sept. 27 – vs. Addison
Oct. 4 – @ Curry*
Oct. 11 – vs. Hamilton*
Oct. 18 – @ Fayette County*
Oct. 25 – vs. Dora*
Nov. 1 – vs. Fairview
*region game
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