High School Football Preview: Wetumpka & Alabama Christian Academy
High School Football
WetumpkaÂ
The Wetumpka Indians finished the 2022 regular season with a 7-3 record and made an appearance in the first round of the playoffs where they fell to Saraland 48-14. This season will be Head Coach Bear Woods’ second season with the team, and he has high expectations heading into the 2023 season.
“They know the process, they can actually start trusting the process…In terms of how we ended last year, that’s not what our goal was to end with a first-round loss. We had a few key moments in our season where it really came down to half a yard in two separate games. That ended up being one yard that ended up being the determining factor in two losses on our season. So I think our guys can really harken back to those moments and we can build off of that and that everything we do matters,” says Woods.
Wetumpka brings back two key players one their quarterback, Nate Rogers, and the other defensive back, James Ball. However, they did graduate one very key player according to Woods, that being punter Logan Weighall who went on to play for Georgia Tech. Replacing Weighall on the Wetumpka roster this season is senior Gabe Myrick.
“Logan kicked meaningful field goals for us one being a 49 yard game winning one down at Baker High School. With that position we were able to flip the field…that’s a huge spot we’re filling. It’s not a question mark, we’ve got a guy there, the question is handling the moment. Gabe has worked really hard and we’re in full support of him, but that’s a huge position that we had a weapon with last year,” says Woods.
The Indians kick off the 2023 season on August 25th on the road at Benjamin Russell.
Alabama Christian Academy
Last season the Alabama Christian Academy Eagles finished the regular season with a 7-3 record and made it to the second round of the playoffs where they lost to Pike County 41-39.
ACA lost a lot of key players of both sides of the ball. The Eagles lost eleven starters on offense and nine starters on defense, so this year’s team will look very different but Head Coach Michael Summers believes his team is up for the challenge. Summers also mentions that year’s team has been one of the most fun to coach.
“We really have a new team, but we really like this team. This group has been through a lot together, they’ve been with each other for a long time, so they’re a really really cohesive group,” says Summers.
A key focus for this year’s ACA Team is to elevate themselves in everyway possible, whether it be on the field or off.
“Our mission as a football team is to elevate. I want to see this groups faith grow, I want to see them continue to elevate the people around them, make the people around them better everyday, and I want to see them over achieve,” says Summers.
Senior Linebacker, William Milner, mentions that more so than other years, this year’s team has more of a family feel.
“We’re going to be locked in. It took me a little bit to be a family with the guys last year, it took me a couple of games, but we didn’t really have that this year. We’ve really bonded and we’ve really become close over the past couple of weeks,” says Milner.
The Eagles kick off the 2023 season on September 1st on the road at Catholic.
