Spartans take on Gulf Shores in opener

MOUNTAIN BROOK – The Spartans finally get a chance to hit someone else this week.

After a long offseason, the Mountain Brook High School football team will open its season on Friday night against Gulf Shores. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Spartan Stadium.

“You’re competing against yourself the whole time and the kids get anxious to finally come together and be a team instead of compete against one another,” Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager said.

The Spartans come into the season with high hopes after winning eight games last fall and finishing second in Class 7A, Region 3. Much of the offense remains intact, with Hamp Sisson and Harold Joiner spearheading the unit. There will be many new faces on defense, but guys like lineman Joe Bird will attempt to bring the defense up to speed as soon as possible.

Mountain Brook made the trek to Gulf Shores to open last season, and cruised to a 56-6 win behind big nights from several players.

“There was uncertainty about what kind of team we were going to be,” Yeager said of heading into that game last fall. “That night, it seemed like everybody that had on a green and gold jersey contributed. It was one of my favorite games of my career because of that.”

After going winless on the season in 2016, Gulf Shores has a new head coach in Matt Blake, who comes over from Spanish Fort and was an assistant coach previously at Gulf Shores from 2011-14.

Yeager said that he has spent the entirety of the offseason focusing on improving his own squad at Mountain Brook, and only this week has the team begun to turn the page to Gulf Shores.

For possibly the first time in his coaching career, Yeager said that he could not remember the Spartans having a bad day of practice, something that should bode well for the season ahead. But until the ball is kicked off in the first game, there is no telling what will unfold.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” Yeager said. “That’s why you compete and find out. All the competition has been self-contained. You can think you’re pretty good on one side of the ball and not as good as you thought you are.”