Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

After 11 weeks and a regular season that started all the way back in August, there are now just three Chilton County high school football teams left with a chance to bring home a state championship.

Maplesville High School will be returning to the AHSAA Class 1A playoffs for the 21st straight time, every year since 2004. Head coach Brad Abbott and the Red Devils won the Class 1A Region 4 title this year with an unblemished record after missing out on the top spot a year ago. Following their win against Verbena High School on Oct. 25, Abbott spoke about the significance of winning the region each year, even for a program that has won countless over the years.

Maplesville will now turn their attention to the state playoffs where in those 20 consecutive years of making it, they have won their first-round matchup 17 times and have not lost in the first round since 2008. The Red Devils face Florala High School in the first round out of Class 1A Region 2 who finished the regular season 7-3 and fourth in their region, with all of their losses coming to the three teams ahead of them in the standings.

Another local program returning to the state playoffs on a lengthy streak is Thorsby High School. The Rebels found themselves back in Class 3A after realignment in the offseason, and in their first season back, made program history by making the Class 3A state playoffs for the first time. Thorsby extended its streak to eight straight years of postseason football, each year in head coach Daryl Davis’ second stint at the helm.

Thorsby, the fourth seed out of Class 3A Region 3, drew the No. 1 seed from Class 3A Region 1 T.R. Miller High School who is 9-0 entering the final week of the regular season. Davis’ counterpart will be a head coach with strong ties to Chilton County in the past, Brent Hubbert, who coached at Maplesville from 2004-2018 and won three state championships with the program.

In arguably the biggest feel-good story of the Chilton County football season, Verbena High School is back in the postseason after a one-year hiatus. The Red Devils locked up the No. 3 seed out of Class 1A Region 4 with a 5-2 region record and were a few scores away in both of their region losses. The strong season clinched playoff football in Verbena for just the fourth time since 2001.

Verbena will have its toughest test of the season by far in the first round as it travels to Elba High School to face last year’s Class 1A semifinalists and the AHSAA’s now all-time leading rusher Alvin Henderson.

All kickoff times for the first-round playoff games are set for 7 p.m.