The Russellville football team will travel to Jacksonville State University on Friday, May 19 for a spring jamboree.
Head coach Mark Heaton said on Monday that the Golden Tigers will kick off spring drills on Friday, May 5 and then finish off ten straight dates of practice with a game against Saks High School on Friday the 19th at 7:30 p.m. at Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium.
“We originally wanted to try and get Pelham up here, because we went down there last year,” said Heaton, whose fourth season with the Golden Tigers will officially begin in August. “But they had a conflict, and we had a conflict with the date. So we started looking around. We really wanted to host something, but I saw an advertisement that said Saks was looking to see if they could find an opponent.
“Jacksonville State has put together a spring jamboree they host on their campus, and Coach Miller [Jonathan, the head coach at Saks] had a spot there. We’d have loved to have something at home, but it’s great to get to have an experience you don’t get a chance to be a part of every day.”
The Golden Tigers finished 8-4 in Heaton’s third season in 2016, falling to Briarwood Christian in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs. Saks, a Class 4A program, went 6-5 last year in Miller’s fifth season at the helm, falling 20-7 to Fayette County in the first round of the playoffs.
“It’ll be neat to take our kids on a long road trip to play a game against a solid opponent, a talented group,” said Heaton, who is 27-9 in his three years at RHS. “It’ll help prepare us for what we’ll see next year, potentially, in a deep playoff game on the road against a solid, athletic football team. It’s kind of a precursor to what we’re looking to see.
“We’re excited about it. It’s a good opportunity for our kids. It should be a great atmosphere, and it’ll give us a playoff-type setting. I’m glad it worked out the way it did. God had a plan the whole time, and it was neat how He let things unfold. It gives us something to look forward to at the end of spring.”
Eight teams will be involved in the jamboree at Jacksonville State—seven teams from Calhoun County, plus Russellville. Heaton said that crossing the state to face an unfamiliar opponent in an unfamiliar venue will present his team with an opportunity to test itself and mature.
“Any time you can go into a different area and a different region and compete, it’s a good thing,” he said. “You get outside your comfort zone a little and see some different things in a different atmosphere. That can be big for the growth of your program.”
With spring football six weeks away and the 2017 opener against Deshler still five months out, Heaton said the offseason has been going well for the Golden Tigers.
“You know how it is this time of year,” he said. “We’ve got kids all over the place—baseball, track, soccer. But the guys who are already into full offseason mode have been working hard. We’re starting to see some of the guys we’re counting on to fill some pretty big roles for us step up and take on more leadership responsibilities. They’re physically maturing as well. It’s exciting to see.”
Heaton recently finished finalizing his team’s 2017 schedule. Russellville will travel to Athens on Friday, August 25 for a preseason game, and five of the first six regular-season games will be on the road, too. The Golden Tigers will kick off the season against rival Deshler in Tuscumbia on September 1 before opening Region 8 play the following week at Lee of Huntsville. Russellville’s only home game in the season’s first half will be September 15 against Lawrence County.
On September 22, the Golden Tigers will hit the road again to take on region rival Mae Jemison before stepping out of region play with an away game at Hartselle on September 29. October opens with a return to region play and a trip to face St. John Paul, followed by a home showdown at Golden Tiger Stadium with Brooks, the reigning Region 8 champion, on October 13.
The final road game of the regular season will be at East Limestone on October 20, and Russellville will then host Ardmore for homecoming on October 27 in the Region 8 finale. The regular season will end with a home game against rival Colbert County on Friday, November 3.
