Armstrong will be missed at Hillcrest, will be an asset to Excel High School

Hillcrest's Clinton Smith, left, and Brandon Armstrong, right.

I don’t know about the rest of you sports fans, but I’m about ready for football season to get started.

By my count, as of today (June 27), we’ve got 57 more days before Hillcrest High School and Sparta Academy kick off their regular season schedules on Aug. 23.

Both of our local teams will open their seasons at home, which will be nice for the friendly, neighborhood sports reporter, who will try his best to get photos at both games. Hillcrest will play Greenville High School at Brooks Memorial Stadium, and Sparta will play Cornerstone Christian at Stuart-McGehee Field. Both games will get underway at 7 p.m.

I look for Hillcrest to be really, really good this year, and so does head coach Clinton Smith, who has made it no secret that he’s expecting big things out of his 2019 team. I can’t say that I blame him either when you take into account that he’s got four players, who have already committed to play major college football in 2020. He’s also got half a dozen more that could sign scholarships further down the road.

I’m also looking forward to watching Sparta this season as they enter their first year under new head coach Arlton Hudson. “New” probably isn’t a great way to describe Hudson because even though he’s new to Sparta, he’s one of the most veteran head coaches in Alabama. If past success is any indicator of future success, then I look for Hudson to do well at Sparta.

That’s not to throw shade on former Sparta head coach Justin Chandler, who I have much respect for. Chandler always worked well with the newspaper, and he promoted his kids behind the scenes a lot more than people realize. I was happy to see that he’s now accepted an assistant coaching position at his alma mater, Monroe Academy, where he was a top player in his high school days.

I was bummed out this week to hear that coach Brandon Armstrong was leaving Hillcrest for a teaching and coaching position at Excel High School. Armstrong began teaching and coaching in Conecuh County in 2006, and he was one of the unsung heroes of Hillcrest athletics.

The first time that I ever met Armstrong, he was the head baseball coach at Hillcrest, and he also served for years as an assistant football coach at Hillcrest. During his 13 years at Hillcrest, he served under some great coaches, including Maurice Belser, Larry Boykin and Clinton Smith. No doubt Armstrong learned a lot during that time, and he will be a huge asset to Excel.

With that said, we’ve got a little over eight weeks left to go before high school football gets going in Conecuh County. For Alabama and Auburn fans, we’ve got 65 days to wait before the kickoff. Alabama will open against Duke in Atlanta on Aug. 31, and Auburn will play Oregon that same day in Dallas. Auburn seems to have the tougher opponent on that day, but time will tell.