High School Football In Alabama

Football is the number one, year-round topic of conversation in Alabama. Someone is always talking about how well last year’s teams did, and how well this year’s teams will do. Some people are repositories of vast knowledge of statistics and strategy that stagger the imagination.

Football is the king sport. Nothing else rivals it. Football prowess begins before junior high, with pee-wee and city leagues, and reaches its local zenith at the high school level. In Alabama, all high schools are organized into “A” classifications, 1A through 6A, and this is determined by the population of the student body, in grades 9-12. The Alabama High School Athletic Association is the governing body for football and all high school athletic programs in the state. High school football games usually command a large crowd in Alabama, even in the heat of September, and some high schools have stadiums that rival those of college teams.

For many schools, a great deal of their athletic funds go straight to the football program. It isn’t unusual for other programs to have slim resources because the thrust of the school’s athletic program centers around football. Football is an American cultural phenomenon, and reaches near madness in the Southeast. In the impoverished years after Reconstruction, Southerners were the lowest of the low, where the rest of the nation was concerned. The Civil War had crippled the South, financially and morally. Southerners were desperate to gain some recognition for themselves. Southern literature and its impressive body of work notwithstanding, Southerners were determined to be “top dog” at something. That something became football. For all our reputation as a languid, slow, lazy race of people, Southerners are fiercely competitive in their own arenas. Where we feel we excel, we fight tooth and nail.

Football provided a national stage for Southerners in general, and Alabamians in particular, to show their athletic skills and perhaps, gain some respect from the rest of the nation. High school football, especially for the best teams in their classifications, is the “farm system” for college ball. Spring is filled with rumors and sports stories about which top high school recruit will sign with which top university — preferably the University of Alabama or Auburn University, Alabama’s powerhouse Southeastern Conference Division I colleges. Signing up with either of these schools all but guarantees a football player a place in the national eye. As with most things in life, the strong high school football tradition in Alabama is yin and yang, good and bad. On one hand, it has provided some poorer high school students a chance to achieve something in high school, and to go on to a college education. Many former football players have great stories to tell about how excellence in football allowed them to become successful businessmen and provide for their families.

Football lore has become woven into the very cultural fabric of Alabama. It is inextricably entwined into the state’s identity. Without doubt, many young men have had their lives changed on the football field because of a coach who cared about them and wanted to see them excel in life, as well as on the gridiron. This is true across the board, in large schools and small. However, there is a dark side to Alabama high school football. In the larger schools, especially, the competition to make the team is incredible. Schools with long winning traditions put tremendous pressure on the coaches and players to have yet another championship season. The stress leads to early burnout for coaches and induces good players to drop the sport rather than deal with the constant pressure.

Football, high school and college, is big business in Alabama. Sometimes, a good football season is a small town’s best source of income. Like big business, there are deals made that are not ethical and only barely legal, but they are made to ensure the best players sign with the big schools, or to enable a school or community to continue a winning tradition. Entire city governments have colluded to try to manufacture a winning season, and school counselors have been pressured into changing grades to keep good athletes eligible to play. At its best, high school football in Alabama is a beloved sport, one that brings back fond memories for many, many people. It provides opportunities for students who are short on resources and family support. At its worst, it is a business carefully orchestrated to bring along the best young players into the biggest universities, thereby feeding the professional football monster. It is excessively competitive and plants the destructive idea that winning is the only acceptable outcome in the minds of young people. Those involved in high school athletics in Alabama walk a precarious tightrope.