GOOD HOPE, Ala. – Football season is upon us and the Good Hope Raiders are gearing up for another postseason run. The Raiders are a combined 19-5 in the last two seasons and fans are excited to see what this year’s team has in store. Head Coach Alan Scott has an experienced group of Raiders returning from last year’s playoff team and he, along with the players, are ready to move from the practice field and play under the lights again.
“I think I feel about like every other coach in the state right now, our kids are tired of looking at each other,” Scott joked. “They’ve done a good job; we’ve had had really good attendance throughout the summer and fall camp and they’ve learned a lot. We have a lot of experience coming back so we’re probably farther along than we were last year at this time, so I’m pleased with that, but we just want to play at this point.”
The Raiders, like everyone else, having been dealing with a summer and fall full of distractions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Scott admits that all the uncertainty is a strange to deal with but on the practice field, his team has been able to roll with the punches no problem.
“I think it’s gone really well. They let us get back together at the start of June and the kids have handled it well. The coaching staff has done a great job of supervising so that hasn’t really been a big issue. I think its more so just kind of the background noise and the what-ifs that keep coming at you each and every day. You’ll think one day that we’ve got it figured out and then overnight the Big Ten decides they’re not going to play football. And I understand,” Scott said. “I don’t know what the future holds, all I know is that our team is doing what they’ve got to do to get ready and we’re going to try and control what we can. I’m thankful we live in a state where we have and athletic director in Coach (Steve) Savarese that has allowed us to start on time and I believe that’s the right answer.”
Good Hope has a lot of varsity experience returning to the line of scrimmage and in the backfield, this fall but there are some big shoes to fill at the skill positions on offense and in the defensive secondary. Drew and Cole Maddox largely filled those roles last fall and Scott is looking for some new faces to step into those roles.
“We lost an offensive and a defensive lineman, which is not bad because a lot of times you may lose three or four, so we’ve got a lot coming back there,” Scott said. “We lost our wide receivers and cornerbacks with the Maddox cousins and they did a great job for us last year so we’ve just been trying to find guys to step up into those roles has been a key for us this fall. I think our guys have handled it well so I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do.”
The Raiders are sliding into a new region this fall and that comes with some new challenges. Good Hope will face foes they haven’t seen in a long time or ever before and Scott and his team are excited to meet the upcoming season head on.
“We’re going to try to keep things simple and do what we can control. Obviously, we’ve got a new region this year so that makes things a little interesting. There are some teams we’ve never played before in school history and some that its been a while. I don’t think we’ve played Addison since I played,” Scott said. “We’re playing West Morgan and we’ve only beaten them once in school history when I was a senior so it’s a whole new challenge in front of us. I’m thankful that we have a lot of guys on this team that have been here the last two years and kind of know what it takes so we’ve just got to stay focused and try to do all the little things that have helped us win in the last couple years and those things don’t change. Protect the football, control the football and play hard.”
The Good Hope Raiders will kick off the 2020 season on the road against West Morgan Thursday night.
2020 Good Hope Football Schedule (4A Region 6)
8/20: @West Morgan
8/28: West Point
9/4: @ Ashville*
9/11: Haleyville
9/18: @ Hanceville*
9/25: @ Addison
10/2: Etowah*
10/9: @ Fultondale*
10/16: Dora*
10/23: Oneonta*
2020 Good Hope Football Roster
#1 Braxton Marshall
#2 Weston Hancock
#3 Ethan Anderson
#4 Jager Burns
#5 Colton Whatley
#6 Tyler Black
#7 Kmal Bell
#8 Dylan Butts
#10 Jesse Blackmon
#11 Tanner Malin
#12 Logan Self
#13 Matt Self
#14 Paydon Bagwell
#15 Lawton Farr
#19 Conner Clark
#20 Briley Mattox
#21 Zeb Smith
#23 Jed Clements
#24 Colton Bagwell
#25 Michael Owens
#26 Jake Kicker
#28 Will Flynt
#30 Andrew Easterwood
#31 Riley Schaefer
#32 Jared Pugh
#33 Kaleb Jones
#35 Taz Bartlett
#41 Charlie O’Neil
#42 Konnor Stevens
#44 Eli Pugh
#50 Doston Putman
#51 Tristan Hibbert
#52 Brodey Witcher
#53 Cole Davis
#54 Cody Dye
#55 Seth Loggins
#56 Lucas Hill
#57 Jackson Dillashaw
#58 Clayton Herring
#59 Jaden Gibson
#60 Russ Wooten
#61 Colin Speegle
#62 Caleb Willis
#63 Eli Clements
#64 Matthew Simmons
#65 Ben Gillespie
#66 Jorge Estudillo
#67 Hunter Givens
#68 Morgan Cook
#70 Guillermo Alday
#71 Ethan Anderson
#72 Barry Nixon
#73 Jude Johnson
#74 Landon Lowery
#76 Jet Swann
#80 Eli Turner
#88 Travis Brock
Coaches:
Alan Scott – Head Coach
Mitch Witcher
Taft Dillashaw
Patrick McDonald
Matt McCulloch
Cody Weaver
Justin Ray
Damian Rodriguez
Phillip Keef
Sam Jones
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