AHSAA re-classification puts four Marengo County teams together
The Alabama High School Athletic Association released its bi-annual re-classification Wednesday morning with the biggest changes for local teams coming in Class 1A.
Linden and A.L. Johnson, which had shared Region 3 with Maplesville for the last several years now shift to Region 1. Joining those two schools in Region 1 will be returning members Millry, Fruitdale, J.F. Shields and Marengo as well as Sweet Water, which drops down from Class 2A.
“It’s a good move for us. We’ve got a lot of folks closer to us and we don’t have to drive all the way to Mobile a couple times a year,” Sweet Water head coach Pat Thompson said about the move to Class 1A after the Bulldogs spent the past four seasons in the treacherous Class 2A, Region 1 against the likes of Washington County, Flomaton, Leroy and Mobile Christian. “It’s still a tough region. We’ve got a lot of good teams in there with Linden and Marengo, Fruitdale and Millry and A.L. Johnson will always be tough on us. But we’re excited about it.”
Half of Class 1A, Region 1 is now comprised of Marengo County teams, allowing schools to reignite longstanding rivalries for at least the next two seasons.
Sweet Water will be returning to Class 1A for the first time since 2011 beginning in the 2016 season.
“I feel good about the fact that all the teams in Marengo County are playing except Demopolis,” Linden coach Andro Williams said. “I think we’ll do pretty good at the gate. It’s according to at what point you’re playing and what’s going on.”
“It’ll definitely help pick up the gates with us in the county having to play each other and getting those rivalries going back again,” Thompson said.
For Marengo High coach Eberne Myrthil, whose team is the only one of the quartet of county teams to have competed in Region 1 each of the last two seasons, the new alignment is ideal in terms of both travel and appeal to the school’s fan base.
“I like the fact that we get to play a lot of our area teams. Four teams in our county are right there in our region. That’s going to be very interesting. And then we’ve got some folks that we played last year and the year before last,” Myrthil said. “Everybody is right there. The furthest we could go is probably J.F. Shields. Everybody else is not too far away. Millry and Shields are the only distance. There’s going to be some really good games. I think the fans will come out to support the teams and then you have five playoff teams in that region alone.”
For Linden and ALJ, the shift to an eight-team region is also refreshing given that the Patriots and Eagles have competed in a five-team region in 2015, saddling them with the difficulty of filling out their schedule.
“The thing I liked about it the most is that all the teams in the county do get to play each other and you have an eight-team region where you only have to pick up three games,” ALJ coach Johnney Ford said. “It makes it easier to do your schedule.”
“The main thing is trying to get some pretty good quality opponents for your non-region games,” Williams said. “Where you’re sitting at, who you’re playing and when you’re playing is going to affect that. We’re probably going to be looking at a jamboree and three non-region games if we can get them.”
The four Marengo County schools will also comprise Class 1A, Area 4 in basketball.
“That’s great there too. It’s almost like a county tournament other than Demopolis because we play all of them anyway. It makes it a little bit more interesting,” Ford, who led the ALJ basketball team to the Class 1A state semifinals in 2015, said. “It adds a little bit more intrigue to the games now.”
