High School Football Previews: Tallassee
High School Football Previews
The Tallassee Tigers are looking to improve off of their 1-9 record from a year ago, and also begin a new era in the program as they welcome their new head coach Lawrence O’Neal.
O’Neal makes the move to Tallassee High School from Booker T. Washington High School where he served as the head coach of the Golden Eagles. This is also somewhat of a homecoming for O’Neal as he is originally from Tallassee.
“When the job became available, after looking at what we had done at BTW we just thought that we kind of needed a change of scenery and it’s just the right fit at the right time,” explains O’Neal.
Along with O’Neal there have been several other new additions to the coaching staff. Coming with O’Neal from BTW are his defensive coordinator and assistant head coach James Mitchell and quarterbacks coach Richard Taylor. In addition to those two coaches that came from BTW, O’Neal also adds Ty Hardnett as his co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach. Hardnett made the move to Tallassee from Faulkner University where he was the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.
Throughout the summer O’Neal has been impressed with the competition amongst his team at workouts and is excited for what is in store this season.
“I love the competition, we’ve competed in plenty of OTA’s and just to see that our guys have got some fight in them and competing every snap, every rep, that’s what gets me excited. It’s not looking at the scoreboard trying to see how much time is left on the clock and see what the score is, but the fact that they’re competing with the guy across from them each and every play, that gets me excited,” says O’Neal.
Two of the seniors on this year’s team Carter Sayers (right tackle) and Chase Chumley (wide receiver) are excited about what Coach O’Neal and his staff have brought to the program.
“Grit and excitement. He brought a lot of life into the weight room and on the field. He pumps us players up and he makes us want to work harder,” says Sayers.
“A lot of life. The vibes are totally different at practice, everything. Everybody is kind of just bought in to what we have going on here,” explains Chumley.
And this season along with trying to improve their overall record, the Tigers are out to prove their doubters wrong.
“We’ve got a lot of doubters this year. We’ve had a lot of people doubting us and just saying we aren’t going to be any good and so that’s what we’re out to prove. We want to win, dominate has kind of been our thing all summer, so that’s kind of our goal,” says Chumley.
The Tigers are set to open up their 2024-25 season on Friday, August 23rd on the road at Montgomery Academy.
