Saks, AL – Not every team can win its last game, and doing so changed Saks’ perspective during the offseason, gave Wildcats hope headed into Freeney’s second season as head coach.
High school football practice starts this week, and East Alabama Sports Today editor Joe Medley has begun his annual round of preseason visits to football-playing schools in Calhoun County. Check out East Alabama Sports Today’s Facebook page for live interviews each weekday leading up to season openers. Columns and key facts will also appear at EASportsToday.com and related social-media platforms.
It’s amazing what one win can do.
For Saks, one victory, coincidentally placed in the season’s final game, impacted the team’s perspective for months.
All of a sudden, 0-9 became 1-9, and the season’s last memory became its happiest memory. That’s what a 29-27 victory over Talladega on Nov. 3 of last year did for Saks.
“It felt amazing,” senior lineman Mason Stevens said at Calhoun County Quarterback Club Media Day. “We actually won one.”
That victory came at the end of Saks’ second losing season since 2006. This for a program that took Piedmont to overtime in the 2021 Class 3A semifinals.
Five surgical injuries had something to do with the Wildcats’ 4-5 finish in 2019. Inexperience at key positions had a lot to do with a 1-9 finish in 2023.
Second-year Saks coach Alphonso Freeney finds himself in a familiar position. The guy who took over a winless Pasco (Fla.) High School team and led it to a 9-2 finish in 2022, his only season there, will try to work similar magic in his second season at Saks.
The difference between Pasco and Saks?
Freeney had to revive enthusiasm after Pasco’s roster dwindled to 17 players. He recruited the hallways to get talented players back out for football.
Saks’ issue last season was precious little varsity experience.
“Coming here, we weren’t as far along as I thought we were, as far as knowing ball,” Freeney said. “When I say knowing ball, I mean knowing different defensive fronts, knowing different defenses, knowing different coverages and those types of things
“We had to go back and do those kinds of things, but the kids here are just as talented as the kids I had in Pasco. That’s the thing we’re going to hang our hat on. We’re very talented, but we’ve got to get tougher and handle adversity better.”
There’s reason to hope. The Wildcats return 11 players that made the 2023 Class 1A-3A All-Calhoun County team.
Quarterback Jamorris Young transferred to Anniston, but Gage Brown steps in with all of the needed skills, Freeney said.
Maybe the biggest reason to hope comes in that one game from 2023, that one victory in the season’s final game.
“Feeling a win feels good,” senior wide receiver/defensive back Jacori Avery said. “We didn’t get a win all season, but that last win, it showed that we can do it together. It felt good.”
For Freeney, the outcome in that victory over Talladega was important. How it happened just might be more important. Dorrien Walker rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns, and the Wildcats came from behind to win it.
“For the kids, it was just good for them to see that they could go through adversity,” Freeney said. “That’s one of our things that I talk to them about is adversity. Us, as a team, we’ve got to learn how to fight through adversity.
“We got into a lot of games, and you can go back and look at the box score. We had a lot of games that Saks was in, in the first and second quarter, and then adversity hits us, and we fall apart. To see our kids go through adversity and get a win, and also for my coaches to see that hard work pay off and get a win, I think that helped, as well.”
As a result, Saks went into its offseason with a smile. The Wildcats’ frown turned upside down for workouts.
Realignment brought a change of scenery. Back in 3A, Region 6, the Wildcats will try to show improvement against Glencoe, J.B. Pennington, Locust Fork, Ohatchee, Piedmont, Wellborn, Weaver and Westbrook Christian.
Saks’ region didn’t get any easier, but no more long bus rides to play in a Class 3A south region and longer bus rides home.
It’s all because a season that played out mostly one way ended another way, the right way. A program that’s won a lot more than it’s lost the past 20 years might just find its way again.
Freeney showed in Florida he can make disheartened players believe again. As Saks, just has to coach them up and get them varsity experience.
Wildcat facts
Things to know about Saks football heading into the 2024 season:
—Alphonso Freeney enters his second season as the Wildcats’ head football coach. Saks finished 1-9 in 2023 and 0-6 (third) in Class 3A, Region 4.
—Key graduation losses from 2023 include the following All-Calhoun County players: DB Christian Smith, OL John Bussey, OL/DL Elijah Garrett.
—The following All-Calhoun County picks return: senior WR Lajuan Curry, senior LS Tyler Rucker, junior LB Shannon Noel, senior DB Tyeshawn Toney, senior TE/LB Gage Brown, senior DL/OL Joseph Buggs, junior RB/DB Nick Mixson, sophomore KR/PR Juelz McClellan, sophomore DL Delandas Allen, senior DL Justin Cosper, junior DL/OL Mason Stevens.
— Player to watch: 2023 QB Jamorris Young transferred to Anniston, so Brown will step in for the Wildcats. Jyiaz Berry transferred from Oxford and will start at WR and back up at QB. RB Jahmaad Crook moved in from Anniston in the middle of the 2023 season and figures big into Saks’ plans for this season.
— The first year of a new reclassification cycle aligns Saks in Class 3A, Region 6 with Glencoe, J.B. Pennington, Locust Fork, Ohatchee, Piedmont, Wellborn, Weaver and Westbrook Christian
