After the end of the 2024-25 season, the Alcovy Tigers and head coach Spencer Fortson jumped right into the offseason with the intention of getting better in every facet of the game.
Come August, Fortson believes the team is as hungry as he has ever seen during his four-year tenure.
“I think that they want it,” Fortson said. “The biggest thing is that they understand the competition that we have within our region, even the non-region schedule. The guys understand that they have to put in the work. When we went into the offseason this year the guys were consistent. They were consistent in the weight room — we didn’t have to look for them. They understand the importance of being a team. They will hold each other accountable and get onto each other. We have seen that going forward.”
After a season in which the team finished 2-8 with a 1-5 record in region play(Region 8-AAAAA), it was no surprise to Fortson that the team wanted to take a step up.
For Fortson and the staff, one of the top goals over the spring and summer was to get the team larger physically.
“One of the biggest things we wanted to make sure and stress throughout the offseason was we got to get bigger, faster and stronger. We got to put some weight on the guys,” Fortson said. “We got some guys that will be competing here for us so we had to attack the offseason aggressively. Put about 10 to 15 pounds on some of our guys that we expect to play on Friday night. That’s been our biggest focus.”
A main cause for this is that the team had to replace many of its starters from a year ago, as the team hosted its largest signing day for football in program history last year.
After last year, Fortson graduated four of his starters on the defensive line who went on to sign to play college ball — Tim Griffin, Cardarius Dowell, Jaksyn Blackman and Jeremiah Heard.
Fortson did not shy away from mentioning the inexperience on the defensive line, but noted that the room is full and there will be many guys competing for starting jobs early and throughout the year.
“Looking at the defensive line, we got a lot of inexperienced guys,” Fortson said. “I think we have one guy that returned who actually got some reps on the defensive line. Another young guy has gotten some reps as well. We are kind of playing [that position] by committee. We haven’t set out who is going to be the guys for us right now. We have about six to seven guys that will play on the defensive line and we will see who will step up and be those lead guys.”
As for the linebackers and the secondary, Fortson will look for players to step up to fill the holes left by players such as Elijah Slidell, Sincere Jackson, Allen Clendon and Jacob Henderson.
Nevertheless, there are still some returners who will now serve as the team’s defensive leaders in 2025-26.
One of the players at the top of the list is senior Kaeden Booker — a four-year starter for the Tigers who has really served as the team’s swiss army knife as he has played in multiple spots on both sides of the ball.
The defense will also return notable players such as Nasir Gilbert, Willie Norris and Leo Haywood.
On the offensive side for Alcovy, Fortson noted that a change needed to happen at the end of last season.
This led to the team hiring former Cedar Shoals assistant Thrandon Echols as the team’s next offensive coordinator.
“We had some changes on the offensive side of the ball, we have a new offensive coordinator so we want to make sure we can get the offense rolling this year,” Fortson said. “That is one change that I kind of made myself — wanting to make sure we have an offense that can be productive and fast paced and [have] somebody that can put the ball in the endzone.”
Alcovy will enter this season without its top rusher(Nick Slidell) and pass catcher(Ashton Hawkins) from a year ago, but Fortson believes the team will be able to make up for the losses with a new crop of skill players.
The aforementioned Booker finished right behind Hawkins on the stat sheet last year and has already shown flashes of the type of player he can be in the team’s spring game against Heritage.
Last season, Ayden Goddard and Kavion Sutton shared quarterback duties for Fortson as the two rotated throughout the season.
This year, both players will be in new roles as Goddard will spend time at running back and wide receiver while Sutton will line up at receiver and even defensive back.
“We had Ayden last year playing quarterback for us and we have him playing a little bit of running back and receiver for us [this year],” Fortson said. “We had Kavion playing a little more receiver for us and on the defensive side of the ball. Both of those guys will get some reps [at quarterback] too just to make sure we have depth at that position.”
With Goddard and Sutton in new roles, it paved the way for Alcovy’s newest quarterback, Trey Bryant.
– photo by Michael Bandoo
Bryant joined the team over the offseason ahead of what will be his junior season, and the 5-foot-11 quarterback took the reins from the very start, according to Fortson.
“He[Bryant] is the guy for us,” Fortson said. “He is going to be the guy at the helm leading the offensive charge on Friday nights. He took the leap.”
With the arm to man the position, Fortson noted how Bryant has the leadership qualities too.
“He came in with some leadership and took control of the huddle. That’s the thing you really want to see,” Fortson said. “Somebody that controls the huddle and gets those guys moving fast. Every now and then we have to remind him that, ‘The energy you have, you have to bring that energy to every play.’ Sometimes he will mellow out a little bit so we just want to make sure he brings that energy to every play when he touches the field.”
With a new season here, Fortson hopes to see his guys step up to the challenge as they look to bring a region title back to Alcovy for the first time since 2021.
“We are looking for great things out of them,” Fortson said. “I think they are ready to take the challenge, they are ready to charge with what we have in the upcoming season.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
