(WHNT) — The Arab Knights and the Priceville Bulldogs are two programs gearing up for the 2025 season with second-year head coaches.
Arab High School
Arab is coming off a 6-5 season in coach Kyle Routon’s first season. The Knights fell in the first round of the playoffs to Moody.
Routon says in year two, you can expect a physical team.
“We want to be the most physical team on the field. That’s kind of how we preach everything, whether we are whipping the bar in the weight room or the person across from us, you know, on the football field, we want to be the most physical team,” Routon said. “Of course, we want to win the region, it’s like I told them day one of workouts, everybody starts the same, everybody’s got the same goals, you know how high are you going to hold the standard and how long are you’re going to hold it.”
The Knights play in a tough region, Routon says his team knows they’ll have to bring their best, week in and week out.
“It’s a tough region, I mean week in, week out, you know there’s really good coaches, there’s really good teams in the region, there’s really good players, and we just kind of pride ourselves on being more violent, being more physical than the other side,” Routon said. “One of our main goals every year is to run through people’s face and that’s how we try to win football games.”
The Knights will take on Albertville on Aug. 21.
Priceville High School
At Priceville, the Bulldogs went 2-8 last season in Seth Parker’s first season. Last year also marked the school’s first year in 5A.
As he heads into year two, Parker says his team has looked in the mirror and worked hard to get better.
“As far as our program, last year wasn’t record-wise, certainly but we’ve put in a lot of work to get a lot better,” Parker said. “But, really if you go back and look we are really not that far.”
The program went from a run-dominant offense before Parker was hired to one that isn’t afraid to air it out in his first season. That change came with some hurdles, but Parker says the team has a better grasp of the offense heading into this season.
The Bulldogs will open the year against Columbia on Aug. 22.
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