By Johnny Sanders, For the Tribune
CLAY — It’s state playoff time in Alabama and there are new faces as well as old. Clay-Chalkville High School has established itself as the latter. In the 27-year history of the program, the Cougars have only missed the playoffs four times, and two of those times were the first two seasons of the team’s existence when they were ineligible.
One of the other two was the 2011 season when they had to forfeit nine games of the 10 they won that year. Basically, the Cougars, in their history, have only legitimately missed the playoffs twice (1998 when they were 1-9 on the field, and 2007 when they went 4-6).
The 2022 edition of the Clay-Chalkville Cougars is 8-1, the only loss coming at 7A powerhouse Thompson by a score of 17-14, a game in which Clay had an opportunity to win, but turnovers got the best of them.
The offense, led by Kamari McClellan, Aaron Osley, Mario Craver, and Jaylen Mbakwe, has put up 372 points in nine games. While they didn’t eclipse 700 points like Cougar offenses from this past year, they have done more than enough to put the defending 6A champs in the driver’s seat for back-to-back blue maps.
When McClellan and company do not have the ball, his teammates Devin Finley, DJ Barber, and Ormond Wallace have locked down on opposing offenses, allowing just 76 points in nine games thus far. Oxford scored 20 of those in their showdown.
Drew Gilmer played his high school football at Pinson Valley before going on to play baseball at Central Alabama Community College. He then moved on to the University of Alabama and upon graduating, he volunteered at his alma mater, tutoring quarterbacks, and the following year he became a teacher/coach there, under Wayne Lee.
A couple of years later, Gilmer moved to Clay-Chalkville where he would be an assistant on Hood’s staff before taking over for the man for whom the football field is named, after assisting for seven years.
“I don’t think you replace him (Hood),” Gilmer said in 2017 when he took over. “I think you just come in and be yourself.”
With massive shoes to fill, Gilmer improved the Cougars’ record from 6-5 to 11-3. They went from being outscored 322-370 to blowing away opponents 438-190. And that momentum has not stopped. Gilmer-coached teams have won at least 10 games in each season he has been there, numerous players have gone on to play at Division 1 schools, and region and state championships have been won.
Gilmer and his Cougars look to continue that domination this week as they prepare to welcome in the Parker Thundering Herd, who find themselves 6-4 on the regular season, riding a two-game winning streak into the first-round playoff matchup. Parker and Clay have never played each other. The winner of this game will take on the winner of the Muscle Shoals vs Hazel Green game.