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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

As the dust settled on Malachi Allgood’s Thorsby High School football career, the formidable force at middle linebacker landed amongst the all-time tackle leaders in the AHSAA record books. Allgood ranks 21st all time in Alabama across all classifications with 455 tackles in just three seasons from 2022-2024. Allgood’s 35 games is one of the lowest number of games played amongst the top 30 tacklers of all time. The senior averaged 13 tackles per game in his Thorsby career.

“I am glad to leave a mark (on the program),” Allgood said.

Thorsby head coach Daryl Davis and the coaching staff gathered all the appropriate information on Allgood’s career statistics and sent it to the state office for official record. In the end, the linebacker cracked the top 30 all time.

“He is an outstanding player, prepares well and is a very coachable kid that has great instincts, which you need to play the middle linebacker position,” Davis said. “From film work and just knowing, he reads the play well and is there by the time the running back is there.”

Allgood “enjoyed the suck” that comes with playing football like practices in the heat of summer, long seasons and nursing injuries. Through that, he became a hard-nosed, physical middle linebacker for Thorsby that stuck his nose in for a tackle any chance he got.

“Coach Davis likes to say ‘Enjoy the suck’ because you only get to do that for so long,” Allgood said. “Coming out day in and day out, workout by workout. I loved being around the boys, and it was fun to hit some people too.”

Allgood was named The Clanton Advertiser’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and backed that up in 2024 with an honorable mention for the award. His total tackle numbers went down just slightly from his incredible 163 tackles in 2023 to 134 tackles in 2024. However, his solo tackles went up in 2024 to 71, up from 64 in 2023. He also tallied 15 tackles for loss, six more than 2023. Allgood added six and a half sacks, three fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles to his 2024 totals.

The linebacker was quick to give credit to the collective group alongside him on the Rebels defense from the defensive backfield to the linemen up front that contributed to his success. He and his teammates helped extend Thorsby’s playoff streak to eight straight seasons, the longest run of success in school history. In 2024, Allgood’s senior class helped the program jump from Class 2A to Class 3A and still maintain their standard, earning the school its first playoff appearance in the 3A classification.

“We went into the season with everyone (on the outside) having their doubts that we were going to 3A and it would be a big difference,” Allgood said. “We took it game by game to make sure we made it into the playoffs. It meant a lot to not only me, but the rest of my teammates too.”

Allgood has a handful of offers to play football at the college level but is still weighing his options before making a final decision. He will now have a record-setting high school career to take with him wherever he chooses.