Priceville visits playoffs 1st time since reopening

Bulldogs traveling in 4A's first round

As Priceville High head coach Donald Weeks described it, his Bulldogs might “have their head in the clouds,” this week.

Class 4A Priceville is enjoying the satisfaction of making the playoffs for the first time since the school reopened in 2001, emerging from talented Class 4A, Region 7 as the fourth-seeded team.

After accomplishing one goal that has been a standard for several years, Weeks said his team must now focus on new dreams of advancing.

Priceville (5-4) will finish the regular season hosting 2A Falkville (5-4) on Friday before traveling to play at eighth-ranked St. Clair County next week in the first round of the state playoffs.

“We’ve never been in this spot before,” Weeks said.

“We knew going into our game last week that if we won, we’d be in the playoffs. Bottom line — we won the games we had to win this year to take the next step.”

The Bulldogs participated in their first year of region play in 2004 going 3-7 that season. Priceville was 5-5 in 2005 and 6-4 in 2006.

Priceville graduated 16 seniors off last year’s squad that the Bulldogs believed had postseason potential, but this year’s 18 seniors helped provide a solid base for this season.

“It’s been a building process and two years in a row we’ve come up one game short. We’ve done what we wanted to do now and now we want to focus on moving on further.”

Making Priceville’s accomplishment even more satisfying is the strong company from 4A, Region 7 that it is now a part. Class 4A top-ranked North Jackson (9-0), and Madison County (8-1) and East Limestone (7-2), who have been ranked as high as No. 7 and No. 3 respectively, are the other qualifiers from Region 7.

“Obviously we’ve got three teams that have been ranked at some point this year and people can say what they want but it’s obvious this is one of the strongest regions in the state and we’re glad to be a part of that,” Weeks said.

East Limestone, West Morgan finish regular season: With both schools playoff-bound, East Limestone (7-2) and West Morgan (5-4) play Thursday night, it could be the last time for the two schools to face off. Community growth in the hosting East Limestone area is projected to soon move the Class 4A Indians up to 5A and may likely bring the matchup to a close.

Last season, East Limestone took a 48-28 win in a high-scoring shootout and both offenses are strong again this season.

The Rebels are giving up 17 points per game, while scoring 29.5.

The Indians are scoring an average of 35.6 points per contest, while giving up 16.

Jacksonville State’s Stewart to speak at Touchdown Club: Jacksonville State University defensive coordinator Greg Stewart will speak at the Touchdown Club’s weekly breakfast Friday from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. at Cracker Barrel on Beltline Road Southwest.

Stewart played for coach Tom Calvin, helping lead the 1983 Austin Black Bears to a 13-1 record his senior year. Stewart was also a four-year starter at nose guard for Troy State from 1984-87 including two NCAA Division II National Championships.

A 17-year coaching veteran, Stewart coached linebackers for the JSU 1992 NCAA Division II National Championship team and two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Delta State in 1998-99 when the Statesmen led the Gulf South Conference in defense.

Also Friday, Austin head coach David Norwood will announce the Black Bears’ players of the week, who will be honored for last week’s game with Buckhorn.

All club members and football fans are invited to attend.

Predicting the preps

Daily Sports Writer Brooke Milam predicts how area teams will fare in this week’s games:

Thursday’s games

Huntsville 35, Hartselle 14

East Limestone 28, West Morgan 14

Speake 31, Danville 12

Friday’s games

Sparkman 21, Athens 17

Austin 17, Decatur 14

Brewer 28, Arab 10

Clements 24, Ardmore 20

East Lawrence 14, Hatton 7

Tanner 26, Elkmont 20

Priceville 14, Falkville 13

Good Hope 35, West Limestone 21

Hazlewood 30, Parrish 27

West Point 16, Lawrence County 13

Addison 31, Lynn 20

Tarrant 27, R.A. Hubbard 20

Last week: 13-4 (.770)

Season record: 120-46 (.723)