Sparta Academy kicks off 42nd football season tomorrow night

Sparta Academy will kick off the 2012 varsity football season tomorrow (Friday) when the Warriors travel to Carrollton to take on Pickens Academy.

Sparta currently has the oldest existing football program in the county, and tomorrow night’s game will officially mark the start of the 42nd season of football at the school.

Tomorrow night’s game will be the 439th all-time football game in the school’s history. Sparta enters that game with an all-time record of 205-229-4. Interestingly, in all those games, Sparta has never played Pickens in football. In other words, tomorrow night’s game will be the first ever meeting between the two schools in football.

Tomorrow night’s game will also mark the regular season coaching debut for head coach Buck Quarles at Sparta. Quarles is the 18th all-time head football coach at Sparta, where head coaches last less than 2-1/2 seasons on average. Past head coaches at the school include Jack Akins, Mike Bledsoe, Richard Brown, Robert Cumbie, Clint Floyd, Michael Gaylor, Mickey Goneke, Donnie Griggers, Don Hand, Rob Kelly, Chuck Ledbetter, Clint Lowery, Bill McNair, Mike Sims, Gerry Watson, Daniel Wilson and Keith York.

Quarles replaces long-time head coach Mike Bledsoe, who was the winningest head football coach in the school’s history. Bledsoe served as the school’s head coach four different times – 1976 to 1977, 1986 to 1988, 1990 to 1994 and 2010 to 2011. During those years, he won 60 games altogether, more than any other coach at the school. He also served as Lyeffion High School’s head football coach from 1981 to 1985.

This season, Sparta will compete in the AISA’s Class A, Region 2. The AISA first split into classes in 1976, and Sparta has traditionally be a Class A school. Since 1976, Sparta competed in Class A for 31 seasons.

At times, Sparta has been a Class AA school. They’ve actually played in Class AA twice. They were in Class AA during the 1993 season and from 2004 to 2007. Sparta never made the state playoffs while competing in Class AA.

Fans will have to wait a little while for Sparta’s home-opener at Stuart-McGehee Field in Evergreen. The Warriors aren’t scheduled to play their first home game of the regular season until Fri., Aug. 31, when they will take on Lowndes Academy in Evergreen. Sparta will enter that game with a record of 112-100-2 at Stuart-McGehee Field.

That game will also be the third all-time meeting between Sparta and Lowndes in football. Sparta’s 1-1 all-time against the Rebels, and the last time they played in Evergreen, Sparta won, 38-30. The only time that they played in Lowndesboro, Lowndes won, 33-13.

In the end, everyone here at The Courant is hoping that Sparta will have a safe and successful season this year. Best wishes and good luck this coming season.

(Also, I haven’t forgotten about Hillcrest. Their regular season doesn’t kick off until Aug. 31, so I’ll preview their upcoming season in a similar fashion in this space next week.)