Jemison and Grissom high school football teams will both battle it out with two other Alabama high schools for tonight’s first round of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s (AHSAA) playoffs. Jemison will be playing Pleasant Grove High School at Pleasant Grove, while Grissom will be playing Thompson High School at Thompson.
Tonight’s game marks the first time Grissom High School has made it to the playoffs since 2004. This season is also the fourth year for head football coach Chip English, who says that making the playoffs is very exciting for a program that he and students have been working hard to build since he first arrived.
“We just kept sticking to the process and what we believe in as a coaching staff,” he says, “and the players have jumped on-board.”
The coach met with seniors prior to tonight’s game and stressed that whatever happens, they need to remember the legacy they have left over the last four years and what the means for the Grissom football program. He also stresses the successes they’ve had off the field engaging in community outreach, study programs, and building personal work ethic.
Tonight will also be the fifth consecutive year Jemison High School has succeeded in making it to the playoffs. Head football coach Harold Wells stresses that it’s good to make the playoffs, “but the question is what do you do when you get there?”
He also notes that running a successful football program was a little different this year due to COVID-19, but the game against Pleasant Grove will still require “the very best we have in every phase of the game.” The pandemic often created a degree of uncertainty for the students and staff this season, but the coach says they did as well as could be expected.
“Everything was new for us and them coming in,” Coach Wells says, “we’re under strict orders, we’re under this pandemic, but then we have to find a way to go out there and mesh as a football team. I think they did an excellent job, under the circumstances.”
Both games will kick off this evening at approximately 7:00PM.