Photo by Jimmy Mitchell.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Armoni Goodwin (2) returns a kick for a touchdown during a game against West Forsyth (Georgia) on Aug. 30 at Husky Field at Hewitt-Trussville Stadium.
High school football schedules in the state of Alabama typically work in two-year cycles. That’s how often the Alabama High School Athletic Association reclassifies its schools, meaning that regions are set two years in advance.
For many teams, the 2019 football schedule was a mirror of the 2018 schedule, with most of the same opponents on the same week of the season but at alternating home sites.
The AHSAA announced its new classifications for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years in December, giving football coaches the de facto go-ahead to begin working on sorting out the region schedule along with a few non-region foes.
Hewitt-Trussville’s football program was not affected much with the latest round of reclassification. The Huskies remain in Class 7A, Region 3. The only change presented to the eight-team region was replacing Mountain Brook with Gadsden City. Mountain Brook dropped to 6A and will not compete in the state’s highest classification for the first time in the school’s history.
Hewitt-Trussville will begin the 2020 season Aug. 21 at Pinson Valley. The two teams opened the 2019 season against each other, with Hewitt-Trussville winning a shootout 40-33. Pinson Valley recently hired Sam Shade, after Patrick Nix — who brought 6A state championships to the Valley in 2017 and 2018 — left to take the head job at Central-Phenix City.
The Huskies play their home opener the following week against Saraland, a 6A power. Saraland fell to Pinson in the 2018 state final and went 10-0 in the regular season last fall, holding the No. 1 ranking for much of the year.
On Sept. 4, Hewitt-Trussville opens region play on the road at Spain Park. In 2019, the Huskies suffered an upset at the hands of the Jags, who scored the go-ahead touchdown on a late drive to win 28-24. The Huskies head to Tuscaloosa County the next week in a second consecutive road region game.
Hewitt-Trussville returns home Sept. 18 to face defending state champion Thompson. The Huskies were the only team to defeat the Warriors in 2019, as a 35-29 win in the season finale gave Hewitt a positive finish to a 6-4 season marred by injuries to several key players.
The Huskies head to Huffman on Sept. 25 for their final non-region game of the season, before hosting Hoover on Oct. 2. The Huskies most recently toppled Hoover in 2018, notching an early-season victory against a Hoover team that eventually made it to the semifinals.
Hewitt-Trussville plays its final road game Oct. 9, as it visits Vestavia Hills. The following week, the Huskies will host new region foe Gadsden City. The Huskies and Titans last played in 2017, with Hewitt winning 38-24. The teams have met 14 times since 2006, with Hewitt-Trussville holding an 8-6 edge in the series.
A visit from Oak Mountain on Oct. 23 wraps up the Huskies’ region and regular season schedules. The Huskies will take their open week Oct. 30, with the goal of having playoff games beginning the following week.
