New school year starts in the county and the city:
Flash Thoughts:
Summer vacation is now done for high school students.
Those who attend Cullman High School and St. Bernard Prep School are back on campus Wednesday as the new year has officially arrived.
Cullman County schools will see their facilities come alive on Thursday and Friday.
Cullman Christian School will have a few more days off until they are in the classroom for the first time Tuesday.
School brings plenty to look forward to. Everyone is now seeing a new grade, especially those who have entered their senior year in their respective school.
It can move rapidly, especially when students are involved in athletics and they encounter success.
Yours truly can reflect to August 1978 when the final year of being a student and athlete at Good Hope High School began.
The atmosphere of going through campus with many others sensing who were the leaders as seniors do set the example for what they do from the hard work they spend in class on a daily situation, then mixing in time of enjoyment for those who take part in athletics sanctioned by the AHSAA.
The last year as a student athlete at Good Hope would culminate in winning a first time all sports trophy from Area 12 of Class 2A.
Success was witnessed in the fall that year with football having a 9 & 2 season and the school's 2nd ever playoff berth. Volleyball would go through greatness as well in a runner up from the county and hosting an area playoff series.
That would send a message on to the basketball, baseball and track teams for seeing victory become a regular item as Good Hope was in its 10th year of being a sanctioned high school.
Plenty will be seen with the new year beginning locally. New coaches for fall sports as football have seen changes at Hanceville, Holly Pond and West Point.
Volleyball is under a new carousel. New faces are leading programs at Cullman, Cold Springs, Vinemont and West Point.
Cross country will be different at Cold Springs as a group of fine runners, led by Ethan Edgeworth, have completed their time in the role of student athletes.
Edgeworth, the top runner in the state last year, is set to go to the University of Colorado. He changed his thought process last week when he said he would go to Boulder and not run at the University of Tennessee.
In two weeks, the season comes alive for football, volleyball and cross country. The weekend of August 22 is the official beginning under the rules of the AHSAA.
This corporation is seeing a change as well.
Heath Harmon is now the Executive Director, replacing Alvin Briggs who has retired.
That is not the only position the association has encountered.
The AHSAA is looking for an assistant director to Harmon, a new director for the coaches/athletic directors association and an associate executive director.
Statewide, the growth of girls flag football is moving forward with 113 schools ready to compete in the 4th year of the sport with the season to start on the 22nd and end during the Super 7 in early December in Birmingham at Protective Stadium.
Fairview High School celebrated its 100th anniversary with a ceremony on campus Tuesday evening.
Cullman Christian School is now a chartered member following 2 years of probation, a standard the AHSAA sends to new members.
Football programs like Fairview, Holly Pond and West Point, seek the next year as each got involved in the sport in the early 1960s.
Cold Springs, Good Hope and Vinemont debuted in 1970, which gives them better than 50 years of enjoyment during the fall.
Cullman High School football was born in 1915 with Hanceville putting a team on the field for the first time in 1925.
For yours truly, his 45th year of reporting on high school sports in the county via the media awaits on the 22nd.
Plenty of memories have been consumed since the first time yours truly covered his first football game in September of 1980 when the Cold Springs Eagles played TW Martin from Walker County at Cranford Stricklin Stadium.
No doubt what has been happening to various sports through Cullman County in recent time, more success is anticipated and will be provided to those who follow us on Gameday Weekly and through the air waves of WKUL FM (92.1).
Photo of the Vinemont Eagles at the Good Hope 7 on 7 camp July 25.
GDW photo by Johnny Thornton.
