High School Football Preview: Tallassee & Prattville
High School Football
Tallassee
Last season the Tallassee Tigers finished up with a 6-4 record in the regular season, then fell in the second round of the playoffs to Charles Henderson 34-7.
Head Coach of the Tigers, Mike Battles, feels that his team has had a productive offseason as they participated in several camps throughout the summer in addition to their own summer workouts. One of the things Battles has made sure to put a lot of emphasis on this offseason is the importance of being in shape.
“Besides trying to figure out the x’s and the o’s, the biggest thing is being in shape. Those first couple of games are usually won by the team that is in better shape. Everyone is going to know the x’s and o’s, but who can do it full speed in the fourth quarter? That is something that they have taken a lot of pride in and they’ve had a good attitude,” says Battles.
Tallassee returns several starters on both their offensive and defensive lines. However, there is one position group on the team is going to be very young this season and that is the defensive secondary.
“They’re all new. They’re talented and they’ve done a good job of learning this summer and competing, but they’ve still got to get out there and get that game experience. We’ve got older guys in the key areas to keep everybody straight and give us an opportunity to win,” says Battles.
One spot on the roster that is going to be somewhat unconventional is the quarterback position where Battles says they will have co-starters.
“Mason Battles and Bryson Rigsby, they’ve played in a bunch of games, but not at quarterback on varsity. So that’ll be a new thing, but they’ve done a good job this summer,” says Battles.
A goal for several of the players on this year’s team is to make the playoffs, but to also create a good team chemistry.
“I want to improve from last year and go deeper in the playoffs,” says Christian McCary (running back/ linebacker// senior.)
“Try your best, have fun, and if you’re having struggles we’ll be there to pick you up and just be there for one another,” says Caleb Segrest (H-back/ linebacker// senior.)
The Tigers kick off the 2023 season on August 24th on the road against Reeltown.
Prattville
Last season the Prattville Lions finished up the season with a 6-4 record. According to Head Coach Jason Wallace, the focus of this offseason was paying attention to the small details.
“The whole mindset this offseason has been being relentless, having a great attitude, being able to refocus, and effort,” says Wallace.
One thing the Lions are striving to do this season is not give their opponent anything, but make them work for everything.
“I always tell them that you’re not going to win until you stop losing, so therefore, we can’t have pre-snap penalties, no
jumping offsides, we can’t fumble the football, and we can’t give up big plays on defense. We’re going to play a clean form of football where we are minimizing penalties and minimizing mistakes and that is why we are harping on the details everyday and and we are getting one percent better everyday which is something we have talked about for about two years now because it adds up over time. Just not giving our opponent anything, they have to earn everything they get in order to beat us. That’s going to be our mindset and that’s what we’re going to do,” says Wallace.
Senior middle linebacker and defensive end, Luke Gordon, explains that he believes the experience of this year’s team is going to make a huge difference in their success.
“The goal is to win region and make it to the playoffs and go as far as we can. I feel like this year we’ve got a lot more of a focused team than we did last year. I feel like we’re going to be able to make it a lot further than we did last year, especially having a lot of players that started last year. Now they’re going to be seniors that were juniors and that’s a lot of experience that we have coming back,” says Gordon.
Senior defensive back, Joris Thomas explains that while the goal of this team might be to make a deep run in the playoffs, they first will be taking it game by game.
“So the first goal that we’ve got is to go 1-0. Once we go 1-0, we’ve got to worry about going 2-0, then all the way down the season, then region, then the playoffs, and then we go to state,” says Thomas.
The Lions kick off the 2023 season on August 25th on the road at Foley.
