Story By Jason Bowen

The Scottsboro football team spent the lead-up to the 2024 season talking about “being the 10th,” a reference to the  goal of becoming the program’s 10th team to win an area or region championship.

A few months later, a 5-1 run through Class 5A Region 8 and a successful two-point conversion to defeat eventual Class 3A state champion Mars Hill 22-21 in the regular-season finale tiebreaker made it the “10th.”

Heading into the new season, the goal is to keep the count going.

“Be the 11th and go back-to-back region champions,” said Scottsboro senior wide receiver Cohen Thompson.

Thompson and fellow 2025 senior team captains Jayden Gilbert, Taygan Harris and Lawson Lee along with Scottsboro head coach Tyler Vann discussed the upcoming season during the annual Jackson-DeKalb Football Media Day at the Tom Bevill Center in Rainsville on Monday.

All four players expressed their appreciation to their teammates and acknowledge the responsibility they have as team captains.

“It feels good knowing your teammates trust you that much to be a leader,” said Harris, a senior offensive/defensive lineman who is committed to UNA.

Scottsboro finished 9-3 and reached the second round of the Class 5A state playoffs in Vann’s first season, and the coach is hopeful the program being farther along for his second season will help the Wildcats reached great heights this season.

“We’re ahead of the game — you should be in Year 2 obviously,” Vann said. “The guys are smart. They’ve done a really good job in the meeting room and being locked in when we are in meetings. These guys are prepared to be better…if you look at our practice sheet this year on Day 1, we’re repping stuff we were still putting in mid-year (last season).”

Scottsboro must replace some key players, especially on defense. 

“We’re replacing seven to eight guys on defense, and most of them are on the (defensive) line and linebackers,” Vann said. “We’re going to be young there. We’ll have some growing pains. We’re going to continue to need to see that group get a lot better as we go. I think we have the potential to be a good defense.”

Lee, a returning starter at linebacker, said the returning defensive starters aim to help the new starters get comfortable in their new roles. 

“As a personal goal, I just want to step up and be a leader for our defense,” Lee said. 

While the offense has seven starters returning, including 1,300-plus yard rusher Jacobi Edmondson (19 touchdowns) and returning receivers such as Gilbert, Thompson and Antonio Brocks, the Wildcats did lose four-year starting quarterback Jake Jones and his 2,800-plus all-purpose yards and 31 combined touchdowns (24 rushing, seven passing). 

Junior Noah Tolleson is set to take the reins of the Scottsboro offense, and Vann and Co. believe he’s ready for the role.

“Everybody wants to talk about how we lost Jake, but at practice and 7-on-7 tournaments with Noah (Tolleson) and seeing the way he can sling the ball around and get our guys the ball in space, I think he’s definitely improved a lot and a lot of people will be proven wrong with his ability,” Gilbert said. 

With Tolleson at quarterback, Vann said Scottsboro will “be more multiple and throwing the football for sure. (Tolleson) has had a really good summer for us. We’ve got receivers we need to get the ball to, and in the backfield we’ve still got Jacobi and multiple guys that can run the football. Mixing up personnel groupings, we’ll probably do more frequently this year.”

Vann said the Wildcats’ weight room work will be the biggest determining factor in just how successful Scottsboro is during the 2025 season.

“We know that when we get to the playoffs, we’re not going to beat anybody really good based on athleticism. We’ve got to be the most physical team,” Vann said. “The guys have worked really hard in the weight room. When I first got to Scottsboro, it was probably the weakest team I’ve ever been apart of to start with. I can say that now because they’ve come a really long way (with how) they’ve worked in the weight room. They understand that that’s what it takes to be successful. If you are not in the weight room, you can’t be a great football team and that’s what we’re trying to be.”