In a battle between Class 6A unbeatens, one is trying to build a tradition of winning while the other is seeking to get back to a place where success is measured in solidarity among teammates as well as on the scoreboard.
Sixth-ranked McAdory travels to meet No. 9 Helena on Friday at Husky Stadium. Both teams are 5-0 on the season. It’s Helena’s best start in its eight years of fielding a team.
All-time, Helena is 43-38 in its seven-and-a-half seasons. The Huskies have made the playoffs in three of the past seven seasons.
“I think any time you’re undefeated midway through a season, I wouldn’t say I’m surprised, but I’m proud of the way we’ve played every Friday night,” Helena head coach Richie Busby said. “I don’t know that we looked at the schedule and said, ‘Hey, we can be 5-0!’
“We’ve had our challenges. We have trailed late in the game and come back, we’ve led in some and held on. We’ve won about every way you can win one in five weeks.”
The Huskies have two shutouts, rolling over Dallas County 55-0 in the season-opener and Benjamin Russell 32-0 two weeks ago. Last week, Helena won 37-34 at rival Pelham in a see-saw battle.
“We lost eight starters on defense and seven on offense,” Busby said. “We start two freshmen and a handful of sophomores and only have 20 or 21 seniors. We’re still extremely young at places you don’t want to be young at. They are starting to mature a little bit after five weeks. I guess they are a little further ahead than I thought they might be.”
First-year head coach Aryvia Holmes said the Yellow Jackets’ fast start has been a bit of a surprise. “Coming in this first year and looking at where we started off with the schedule we have, I just wanted to come out and compete,” he said. “My biggest thing I talked about when I got here was that we’re going to be sound, we’re going to compete and let the chips fall where they may.
“The kids have done well. They are having fun and playing hard. They are believing in each other. When they do that, when they care about each other – especially in today’s high school ball where you don’t see the game being played like it was when I came up. Back then we played for each other and for the community. These days, a lot of kids play for themselves.”
The Jackets have scored 37.6 points per game, with a 21-7 win over St. Paul’s to open Holmes’ first game as a head coach. McAdory then edged Demopolis 33-28, trounced Homewood 45-18 and Paul Bryant 42-23 and blanked Bessemer City 47-0.
“We’ve had some luck, too,” Holmes said. “We caught St. Paul’s at the best time because they have a lot of new guys on the field and Demopolis probably should have got us. The Homewood score was not indicative of what kind of team they have. It got away from them a little bit.”
Holmes said he took the McAdory job after serving as offensive coordinator at Minor for the past three seasons and working at Pinson Valley for Patrick Nix and at Hoover with a plan that goes beyond X’s and O’s.
“As much as I love being 5-0, I just pray that the reason I got this job – and what I told these parents to always remember – first and foremost is I am trying to turn these boys into men. I want to give them an opportunity to succeed in life. Sometimes when you start winning a lot of games a lot of that gets cloudy. They forget that we’re still checking grades. We’re still going to correct their behavior and making them run. A lot of coaches remember that and do what they do to help kids out.
“The biggest thing for me in Year 1 is I have a good group of coaches around me who are not afraid to work and not afraid to be the head coach of their positions. I’m not standing over them. I hired them to do a job and they are doing a good job doing that.”
Holmes, like Helena’s Busby, is also serving as athletic director of his school. He hired Austin Gray as offensive coordinator. Gray is the son of Holmes’ college coach at Samford, Bill Gray, who now is the Metro-Area Director of the Greater Birmingham Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “Samford definitely changed my life,” said Holmes, who was a standout wide receiver for the Bulldogs, “and Coach Gray was like a father to me.”
Busby is 25-13 in four years at Helena and 65-30 overall. He spent 18 years working at Fultondale, compiling a 40-17 in five years as head coach. He also worked with Thompson coach Mark Freeman at Bessemer Academy.
“Our community support for all sports at our school is tremendous,” he said. “Our community shows up to support the kids. Our community is blue-collar and the kids work hard. Our families let us coach them hard. We love on them, but we coach them hard.
“You have to play hard every play and our crowd plays into that. We’ve won more than a handful of games trailing at halftime, even in the fourth quarter. Our kids find a way to get it done and a lot of that plays into that crowd support and the atmosphere we play in.”
The Helena offense starts with senior tight end JC Sively, Busby said. “JC, our quarterback Mac Turner and sophomore tailback Jordan Washington are the focus of our offense,” he said. “Those three, especially, have done really good things for us. Our offensive linemen are getting better every week, they’re just young and those who are not young are very inexperienced.
“Defensively, Connor Pugh is a senior defensive end. He’s the third brother to play football at Helena. Joel Logan is another senior defensive end and our linebacker corps has played really well. They are Joseph Roberto, Peyton Woodall and Justin Yunke.
“Our two big guys in the middle are Derrick Wilson (5-10, 245, junior) and Xavier Guy (5-9, 290, junior) and they are holding up the running game,” Busby said. “Our whole front seven is playing really, really well.”
That defense is the fourth-best in Class 6A, allowing just 8.8 points a game. They are likely to be tested by McAdory’s offense that averages 37.6 points a game – seventh-best in 6A.
“I grew up in this area,” Busby said. “They are a typical McAdory team, big, fast and physical. We’ll have to match their physicality and intensity. They have a lot of tradition. We’re just eight years old and I don’t want to guess how many years they’ve played, probably 10 times what we have.”
According to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society website, McAdory started playing football in 1922, with three years with no team. In the recent past, David Powell led the Yellow Jackets to a long string of success. In his 25 years (he was 220-76), McAdory won eight or more games in 18 seasons. His 2012 team was state runner-up with a 14-1 record, falling to Spanish Fort in the title game, and 12 times the Yellow Jackets had double-digit victory seasons.
The Jackets have earned a playoff spot every year for the past 24.
“McAdory is a special place,” Holmes said. “It’s one of those places that almost a one-stop shop. There’s not a lot going on around here, Bessemer is pretty close, but you can see us off the interstate and know that a football game is going on. People love it.
“I think the excitement for football has always been here. But, throw on top of that some wins and it takes off.”
Holmes praised quarterback Cam Shepherd, who has completed 63 percent of his throws over the past four games. Receiver Jabari Strait caught nine passes for 189 yards and two scores against Homewood. Running backs Rod Thomas (220 yards vs. Homewood) and Payton Ryans (133 vs. Paul Bryan) lead the way for the Yellow Jackets.
“Defensive linemen Curtis Weatherspoon and Mario Berry and linebacker Ken’Darrius Kelley have played well for us,” Holmes said. “And I think our kicker, Reed Karch, has done a really good job coming from where he was last year. He hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities (for field goals), but if we don’t let it get blocked or the holder doesn’t drop the ball, he’s done well.”
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