If you ask Springville head coach Keith Maple, he will tell you he wishes the drop from Class 5A to Class 4A could have happened last year. He had 18 seniors on last year’s squad, and he feels the Tigers could have gone deep into the playoffs as a 4A team.

Springville is now the largest school in Class 4A, with 424 students.

“I’m excited, but of course any coach would be,” Maple said. “We were one of the smallest 5A schools, and now we are the largest 4A school in the state.”

Maple said he was very proud of his kids for how they fought and went through the transition from Class 3A to Class 5A four years ago.

“It was a tough two years,” Maple said. “We went 4-6 and 3-7. Finally, we turned the corner in the third year and went 8-3 and made the playoffs and this past year, we went 7-4 and made the playoffs again. I’m proud of how we played in Class 5A.”

Maple said 4A would definitely be a better fit for his team.

“We lost 18 seniors from that squad,” Maple said. “Five of those kids had 42 starts in the four years in Class 5A. We will be replacing our quarterback and some linemen, but I think we will be OK.”

Maple said there is some good and some bad. Good is dropping to Class 4A. The bad is the fierce competition within the region against powerhouses like Alexandria, Oneonta and Cleburne County.

“The biggest thing with the drop to Class 4A is we will now be playing schools with 40 or so kids playing,” Maple said. “In 5A, we played teams that could roll out a whole different punt team, whole different kickoff team, whole different special team, whole different offense and whole different defense. We don’t have the numbers, and the numbers have not caught up with us yet.”

Coach Maple

Starting his 10th season as head coach at Springville, Maple has posted a record of 71-33 in the first nine years and has led the Tigers to the playoffs seven of the nine years.

In 2001, his first year, he guided the Tigers to a record of 11-1. In 2002, the Tigers went 10-3 and then finished 9-3 in 2003.

In 2004, the Tigers finished with a record of 10-2 and followed that up with a record of 9-4 in 2005. Since moving to Class 5A in 2006, the Tigers went 4-6 in 2006, 3-7 in 2007 and followed that up with an 8-3 season in 2008 and a 7-4 season last year. In the four years Springville was in Class 5A, the Tigers had an overall record of 22-20.

Last year

After a 0-0 halftime score, the Tigers prevailed beating Walker 14-6 in the season-opener. They improved to 2-0 with a 40-39 victory over Pleasant Grove. The Tigers remained undefeated at 3-0 as they defeated Curry 42-7.

Springville suffered its first loss of the season to Mortimer Jordan 19-15.

The Tigers dropped a second game in a row, losing to Erwin 30-20.

They bounced back with a 38-22 victory over Brewer but then lost to top-ranked Cullman 48-21.

The Tigers defeated Brookwood on homecoming 33-14.

Coach Maple’s guys trailed Hayden 21-7 in the first quarter and in a must-win situation and fought back to defeat the Wildcats 41-27.

They defeated county foe Ashville 40-14 in the regular season finale.

Springville lost to Fairfield for the second year in a row in the first round of the state playoffs. The final score was 13-12, and the Tigers ended the season with a record of 7-4.

Key players returning

Maple said he has only five senior players returning — Demarcus Tremble, E.J. Woody, Alex Bearden, Russ Rogers and Austin Moore.

Maple said Bearden is being looked at by several Division I schools this year.

“Alex was hurt in week five last year and had knee surgery, but he is back,” Maple said. “Our senior class is really small, considering we are the largest school in Class 4A. We do have some great players returning. Junior Jake Gibson is returning as a receiver, and I expect great things from him.”

Other key players returning include Brandon Gilliland and Chase Whisenant, who will share time at quarterback, Wes Logan, Shawn Gibson and Will Davis.

“We expect to be very competitive and want to get better with each ballgame,” Maple said.

Junior class has many

While the senior class is small, the junior class has 22 players. There are 12 to 15 sophomores and 10 to 12 freshmen.

“I expect a lot of great things from these kids,” Maple said. “We have some young kids who have a chance to step up and make an impact. We are junior-loaded, and we have some very good talent.”

Class 4A, Region 6

Springville is in Region 6 along with county foe St. Clair County, Alexandria, Anniston, Cleburne County, Jacksonville, Locust Fork and Oneonta.

Maple said the region is heavy with teams that have played for or won state championships.

“First, you have St. Clair, who won it in 1992; Alexandria has won one; Cleburne County, Anniston and Oneonta,” Maple said. “It’s a tough, competitive region. We leave 5A and get away from Cullman, Walker, Erwin, Pleasant Grove and move into another region, and it is just as tough. It does not matter what class or region you play in, it is always good football.”

Maple said the team to beat in the region is probably Alexandria.

“Just because, year in and year out, they are good,” Maple said. “But all of that will work itself out midway of the season, and then we can get a better picture. With us being in 5A the past four years, I haven’t given 4A much thought.”

Goals

Maple said the goal is to win 10 ballgames.

“Our goals are very simple,” Maple said. “We want to win the region, we want to win the first ballgame. We have a young group of players; therefore, you worry about leadership. As coaches, we have to be the leaders, because so many seniors graduated and they had that leadership. So another goal is to find those players with leadership abilities.”

Maple said another goal is doing the little things right at practice because that will carry over into the game.

Team strengths

Maple is relying heavily on the skill positions for this 2010 team.

“If we can get our offensive line to get better and better with each game to give our quarterback time to throw the ball, as well as open up some running lanes, our skill guys can make some things happen,” Maple said. “That’s what we’ve done the past five years.”

Maple said the team has changed gears to help them be more competitive.

“It’s hard when you have a 180-pound offensive lineman going up against a guy who weighs 330 pounds,” Maple said. “The philosophy has to change somewhat in order to get your guy in a position where he can be successful.”

Team weaknesses

Maple said if the team has a weakness, it would have to be size.

“Strength wise, we are as strong as anybody,” Maple said. “But our weakness every year has been our size. We just don’t have those big linemen that are 280 to 290 pounds. Alex Bearden is our largest player and he weighs 250. The rest of them weigh 180 to 200 pounds.”

Coaches

With Maple this year at Springville are coaches Jim Taylor, John Paul Taruc, Brad Preston, Kevin Finch, Neal Chambers, Aaron Wisener, Steve Davis and Brian VanDeVanDer.

The Tigers open the season at home Aug. 27 against Fort Payne.

Contact Gary Hanner at ghanner@thestclairtimes.com.