Sand Mountain Reporter

DOUGLAS — The Douglas football team made its only appearance in a 7-on-7 competition this summer count by winning at Susan Moore on July 28.

The Eagles defeated Oneonta in the finals. The Redskins are ranked fifth in Class 4A in the preseason poll.

Cleveland was the other team that participated.

“Right out of the gate we drew Oneonta,” said DHS head coach Brian Knapp.

“Oneonta has a great football program, they’ve got a great tradition and some good athletes.

“They whipped us pretty good the first game. Of course, since my time at Douglas, we’re notorious for being slow starters, but we get stronger as we progress. It held true throughout the day.

“We beat Cleveland, we beat Susan Moore in a thriller and then we played Oneonta in the championship and beat them 12-11. You could get points from the defensive side of the ball too.

“We played an extra game because (Susan Moore) Coach (Bubba) Jennings asked if I didn’t mind playing another, because we hadn’t played any all summer.

“We played Cleveland again, which gave us an opportunity to play some of our younger kids.

“All in all, it was a great day. We had five picks (interceptions).

“We want to improve more on defense. Defense was a sore spot for us at times last year, but offense was too. We were inconsistent on both sides of the ball.

“Especially in the secondary, we hope that we’ve made progress to be better.”

Fall jamboree

Knapp has announced the Eagles will play at Locust Fork in a fall jamboree Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.

The first quarter will feature the teams’ junior varsity squads.

The varsities will play the final three quarters.

Uniform changes

Douglas will wear white helmets beginning with the 2009 season.

The helmet will feature the diamond logo with the block D that Knapp adopted last fall.

“I’ve always been a fan of a white helmet,” Knapp said.

“When you’re trying to rebuild a program and you’re trying to get people excited and change things, within the school colors I felt like a white helmet would be sharp.”

The Eagles will also wear an all-red uniform for home games.

“The home uniform is a mimic of the old Baltimore Colts uniform,” Knapp said.

“Having a long history in football growing up, my grandfather and my dad always had the belief of simple looks more cleaner.

“I’m not an Alabama fan, but you look at the University of Alabama, and they have a clean uniform.

“I felt like that look gave us a simple but neat, sharp, uniform.”

The Eagles will wear black shoes. The new helmet features a black stripe.

“In today’s time, black is an accent. Black is an accent color for everybody in my opinion,” Knapp said.

“But for the Douglas faithful, I do know that the colors are red and white. When I add black, it’s just an accent. I don’t do it to try to add a new color.”

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Letter

Follow the Reporter on Twitter:

SMR News and
SMR Sports

Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

A Southern Newspapers publication.